Shadow Dragon
by RaisingArizona
Summary: This is the story of a lesser known former captain of the 13 Court Squads, one who lost the spirit of her blade after a terrible accident. She then has to find a way to get her spirit back, with the help of Momo and Toshiro. But can she do this before time runs out?
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The Land of the Living was ever-changing as always as I looked down at it from the largest building in Karakura Town. I much preferred it to the Soul Society now, especially since no one knew who I was and couldn't give me pitying looks. Being a Soul Reaper meant that they couldn't see me anyway. I heard the beeping noise of my soul pager but ignored it as I watched the cars pass by below me. I knew who was trying to reach me so incessantly. Old man Yamamoto was trying to get me back to the Soul Society. I felt a weak soul pressure behind me and saw a member of Squad 4 standing behind me to give me news.

"The member from Squad 11 took down two Hollows," he said, looking slightly nervous. "Also… Captain Yamamoto from Squad 1 requests for you to return. He has something important to tell you."

"Thank you, Four," I said quietly, pulling my hood down over my eyes just enough to keep my face in the shadows. I saw him leave quickly out of the corner of my eye and I sighed. He never seemed to like how we kept anonymity by referring to each of them by the number of their squad. He wasn't as fearless as the rest of our little group that was dispatched out here to keep an eye on the Human World. My kimono seemed to scare him more than he wanted to admit.

I was known at one point in time as the Legendary Dragon Soul Reaper because of the shape my Zanpakuto took while in Bankai. It was a large dragon made from bright white flames. But ever since the day I lost my Zanpakuto's spirit, Bankai was too much of a long shot. My Zanpakuto was dead and I took to dressing like a dragon. My kimono was all black, seeming like the normal ones except for a few things. The hem of the hood had sharp fangs ringing it, the top of the hood had blue eyes painted on and even had horns sticking out from the top. The sleeves were long and cut like the wings of a dragon, the spikes sharp at the tips of the ridges. The last difference was a long piece of fabric that was fashioned into a tail.

Another reason he could have been scared was because of the shape of my Zanpakuto. It is locked in Shikai and can't even return back into its sealed form. It looked like a long falchion, straight and wide like a long sword and a wickedly sharp curve towards the end. My Zanpakuto is Tatsuya, but its true name is Hikari Tatsuya. I deeply miss being able to commune with my blade, but nothing seemed to work.

More spiritual pressures appeared behind me and without looking I knew it was our entire group. Aside from me, one of each squad was in our party so we would be well-rounded. I didn't know how old man Yamamoto pulled it off without their respective Captains knowing, but I appreciated the effort put into it.

"Lady Imayru," they all said simultaneously, bowing respectfully to me. Eleven took a step forward, bowing once more before she said, "It is time for us to head back to the Soul Society. Would you do us the honor of creating the doorway back?"

"Of course. I have to go with you this time anyway," I told them, finally paying attention enough to see that it was night and indeed time for them to go back to get some rest. I pointed my Zanpakuto to the right edge of the roof and concentrated my spiritual pressure on one single point. "Come on, Tatsuya. I need your assistance now."

Still no response from Tatsuya and I just pushed my spirit through the blade and into a pocket of space that created the doorway back to the Soul Society. The doors opened up to reveal a bright light, the pathway back. I slid my Zanpakuto back in a makeshift sheath I created, one that held my blade on my back from a sapphire and silver chain with a loop near my right shoulder to keep Tatsuya in place. I beckoned them all to go through and watched them run on before stepping through myself. The way there was dark once going inside but not so bad that I couldn't see the backs of my group as they ran on. I wasn't in so much of a hurry as them since I no longer had a place to call home and slept wherever I pleased. Before long we all saw the light at the end of the tunnel and leapt through it.

The Soul Society had definitely changed since the last time I'd allowed myself there, especially since everything was smashed and broken. When I looked at my group curiously, they explained that a bunch of outsiders had come from the Human World to save a prisoner and that this was the aftermath. Not only that, but there were three Captains who betrayed the Soul Society altogether, one of which was Captain Aizen.

We all walked to the Seireitei, which is the central part of the Soul Society when I caught a glimpse of someone approaching. The rest of my group scattered like the Zanpakuto of Captain Kuchiki, disappearing faster than a frightened deer. The further I walked into the Seireitei was when I finally saw who it was. I froze, not quite believing what I was seeing but waiting for him to approach. I hadn't seen him in forever.

"It's been a long time, Toshiro," I said, tilting my head to the side as I looked at him. "Did you get taller since the last time I saw you or did your white hair just get bigger?"

"I see that your manners are still as awful as they were when we grew up. I can see where your sister gets it from," he said, not giving me any reaction of anger that I remembered but saw a spark in his turquoise eyes. "And it's Captain Hitsugaya now."

"Whatever you say, Shiro. Now how about you tell me why you're here? It's either that or you tell me why it is you look so unhappy to see me."

That was when I got the anger I was waiting for. I saw his eyes blaze in fury and he gritted his teeth, somehow managing to calm down a little before growling out, "Because you left us. You left so fast and didn't even say goodbye. Now your sister is in critical condition at 4th Division Headquarters and you weren't here to be with her!"

"Momo?" I asked quietly, not quite believing what I heard him say. "Will she live?" That was when I saw bandages wrapped around the skin that showed under his kimono. "Are you ok?"

"It was Aizen," Toshiro said simply. "He had this all planned out, even the Ryoka arriving to try and save Rukia Kuchiki from her execution. He was working alongside Ichimaru and Tousen this whole time." When I was about to say something, he stopped me. "Don't. I don't want to know what your thoughts on the matter are. You weren't here when we needed you. Captain-Commander Yamamoto tried to contact you so that you'd be here to stop the Ryoka with us, but you refused to answer like a coward. The brave Imayru Hinamori I remember and cared about died with her Zanpakuto in the Hueco Mundo with the Menos Grande! However, I can't just abandon you here like you did to us. Captain-Commander Yamamoto gave me strict instructions to lead you to his office in the 1st Division Headquarters, even though I'm sure you still remember your way about the Seireitei."

I didn't say a word in response, just hung my head slightly and retreated back into the shadows that my hood allowed me. I kept my hands hanging at my sides and made it seem like the wings I had were drooping in shame. Toshiro watched all this and sighed, turning around and walking off in the direction of the 1st Division Headquarters. The blue eyes on my hood were thin enough that I could see through them and I looked around at my surroundings. I saw a lot of heads turn in my direction as Soul Reapers caught sight of me, hearing the gossip about me spread like wildfire until Toshiro snapped at them to get back to work. I'd never seen him like this before, not even when Momo and I picked on him. I didn't understand what was going on with him, but I didn't know him as well as I did back in the day.

"He feels betrayed since he has feelings for you," I heard a voice whisper in my ear and had to stop myself from jumping in surprise. I turned my head slightly to see that it was Rangiku Matsumoto, Toshiro's Lieutenant. She was a friend of mine back before the fateful day. She gave me a conspiratorial look before she moved close again to whisper something else. "He just doesn't want to admit it to himself, so he'll be as grumpy as a bear with a thorn in its paw. That and the fact that Momo is seriously hurt doesn't help the situation much either."

"Rangiku, I don't remember once telling you that I needed help escorting Imayru to Yamamoto," Toshiro said, any hint that he was still angry now gone.

"But you never said I couldn't!" Rangiku chirped, smiling at him even though his back was facing her. With a flip of her red hair, she looked at both of us before saying, "Besides, the two of you are so unsociable you can't even talk about the little things until you got to 1st Division HQ. That sounds exhaustingly boring, so I came to be of some assistance in that department."

"So you came to gossip about me?" he asked flatly.

"More like catch up with an old friend! Unlike you! You act like an old man sometimes!"

With an undignified grunt, Toshiro picked up the pace and Rangiku laughed, looping her arm through mine and making me skip with her to catch up with him. I hadn't been around these kinds of antics in a very long time, but deep down I knew it was a nice change to the humdrum of the Land of the Living. It didn't take long after that to reach Captain Yamamoto's office, especially since Toshiro wanted to get away from me as fast as he could. He led me inside and announced our presence before we got called inside. We took a step forward and bowed, the Captain of Squad 1 told us to stand. He then told Toshiro and Rangiku to go wait outside in the courtyard where they couldn't eavesdrop. Toshiro left the quickest, practically bolting out the door just to get away from me. Rangiku took off after him and yelled that he was being rude. I walked over to Yamamoto and sat down opposite of him.

He looked at me for the longest time before he spoke. "Well, well. It has been a long time since I've seen you walk these halls. You never come to visit and you always find an excuse to stay in the Human World."

"It was my assignment to watch over the humans. I didn't want to abandon my post."

"Take off your hood, Imayru. I want to look you in your eyes while we have this conversation," Yamamoto said sternly.

I sighed but complied with what he told me to do. I saw a slight smile on his face as he got a good look at me since he hadn't seen me in a while. I had dark brown eyes that were almost black, pale skin, and blue black hair that was in a braid that curled down past my collarbones. I had six horns on the top of my head that were braided in place, the top two were longest and the other four were smaller in size. I pulled my hands out from under my long sleeves and set my hands on the table, claws made from silver tipping each finger in case I was ever in trouble.

"I'm giving you a new assignment," he said, giving me a small smile again. "I need you to assume the position of Captain for either 3rd, 5th, or 9th Divisions."

"Do I have a choice in the matter?" I asked, tapping my claws rhythmically on the table.

"None whatsoever."

"Momo is in Squad 5, so if I had to pick then that will be my choice. I just want to ask her for her approval in being her Captain."

"Then here is your captain's haori that you must wear over that… thing you insist on wearing on the time. It's sleeveless so I figure your won't complain much about it. Tell Toshiro to lead you over to Squad 4's Coordinated Relief Station. Momo is being held there."

I put on the haori, feeling a sense of melancholy as I began to remember my time as Captain before I could stop it. By the time I did, I shook my head and walked out. As I was bowing my respects from the doorway, Yamamoto told me that he better not catch me with my hood up while in the Seireitei or he'd cut it off with his Zanpakuto. I nodded briefly and walked away before he could see my smile. It was immediately wiped from my face when I walked outside the main doors to see Toshiro pacing back and forth anxiously and Rangiku sitting on the concrete porch, watching him pace with a bored expression. When I shut the door a little louder than I'd intended, they all turned to face me and gape in surprise.

"Wow, pretty lady!" Rangiku exclaimed excitedly. "They made you a Captain again?"

"For Squad 5, yes."

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Toshiro asked, grumbling. "Momo might not like it."

"It's none of your business whether or not it's a good idea," I snapped, glaring at him and making him take a step back. "I'm sick of your attitude toward me. I'm sorry I'm not the girl you care for anymore but if you had been with me that day, you'd be a changed person as well. Now stop treating me like dirt and take me to see Momo!"

I heard Rangiku snicker as she stood up, even as I had a stare off with her Captain. "You are a changed person," Toshiro finally said after turning his back to me. "I'm sorry that I didn't see the brave you hidden behind that hood. I just m—"

He was interrupted by a high-pitched giggle as a large shape jumped down from the building behind us. I saw after the dust settled that it was Captain Kenpachi Zaraki with his Lieutenant Yachiru hanging over his shoulder to look at us. Kenpachi gave me a wide grin and stood to his full height suddenly, nearly making Yachiru fall backwards to the ground.

"Imayru, you little brat, it's good to see you again!" Kenpachi yelled, the two Lieutenants trying to hide their laughter. "You never visit me anymore and it's been so long! I see you're a Captain now, so that means we can fight each other again!"

"Not right now, Kenpachi," I told him, trying to keep a straight face. "I need to get to my sister and new Lieutenant."

"Kenny can take you there! Right, Kenny?" Yachiru screamed, bouncing up and down on Kenpachi's shoulder.

"I can get you there in record time!" he yelled at us both, grabbing me and throwing me over his shoulder before I could protest. I gasped in shock as the breath temporarily left my body and we were off. I looked behind them to see Toshiro with a ragged expression, looking as if he didn't know what to do.

I learned early on not to bother with offering directions to either one of them because they didn't listen. Kenpachi had no idea where to go and Yachiru gave horrible directions. I sat back and looked around as we ran past buildings I somewhat remembered. It was almost dawn by the time we made it to the courtyard outside of Squad 4. Kenpachi and Yachiru bid their farewells before disappearing off in the shadows.

I turned around to head where I thought Momo would be when I saw a young man I recognized. The poor thing looked nervous but he gave me a smile anyway. "Hello, Captain Hinamori! My name is Hanataro and I was sent by Captain Unohana to escort you to her! She's with your sister right now!" he told me, looking quite pleased with himself.

"Please, there's no need to be so formal," I told him pleasantly. "You should know by now to just call me Imayru."

"Ok, Lady Imayru," he said, giving me a cheeky smile. "But now we really must be on our way. We weren't expecting you so late." He started off to a path just past the barracks.

"I wasn't expecting to be so late either, but Kenpachi insisted on carrying me here."

"Ah, yes," Hanataro laughed. "Captain Zaraki and his Lieutenant are notorious for their bad directional compass. I'm surprised you allowed him to take you here."

"I didn't allow him to! He threw me over his shoulder and took off running!" I laughed with him.

I saw a bustling building ahead when Hanataro stopped in his tracks. I gave him a quizzical look when he turned around. He seemed as if he had something to ask, but knew it was a sensitive issue. I waited until he got up the courage, giving him the time he needed to formulate his question. Finally, I saw him flush a reddish color, open his mouth once or twice before shutting it, and looked panicked when he finally rushed through the words he wanted to say.

"HowisCaptainHitsugayanowthatyou'rebackintheSeireitei?" he said fast and breathlessly.

"I'm sorry, you're going to have to repeat that and do so much slower," I told him. "Just calm down, Hanataro, I don't mind questions."

He took a deep breath and then said, "How is Captain Hitsugaya now that you're back in the Seireitei?"

"Just as unpleasant and bratty as I remembered him to be before I had to leave," I said, giving him a smile.

"You know he wasn't always like that. He was just really upset that you disappeared one day without a trace."

Hanataro, who was flushed again at what he said, turned around quickly and took off towards the building. I followed him without a word, completely lost in my thoughts. Not that I resented these people, but everyone seemed to be on Toshiro's side except for a select few who didn't care about this sort of thing. I knew when I left that it was wrong of me not to say goodbye, to just up and leave without a trace like Hanataro said, but I couldn't tell them about my assignment and I especially couldn't face Toshiro when I told him I was going away. I shook my head then, attempting to lose that train of thought and concentrate on what lay ahead.

Once inside the building, it was an almost mazelike corridor that I was led down before we finally reached a large room that seemed isolated from everyone else. We opened the door to find Toshiro sitting in a chair beside the bed that Momo was lying on and Captain Unohana standing opposite of Toshiro.

"It took you long enough," Toshiro said, not once looking at me but instead looking at Momo.

"Captain Hitsugaya, it is unnecessary to act this way when we all know the truth," Retsu Unohana chimed in, making Toshiro look up at her for a second before returning his stare back to Momo. Retsu sighed before giving me a warm smile and beckoning for me to enter the room. Hanataro shut the door behind me and I heard him walk back down the hall. I walked over to stand beside Toshiro without a second thought and while he still refused to look at me he took my hand for comfort when Retsu wasn't looking, sliding his fingers between mine like he always used to. Retsu walked to the door and then said to me, "Momo is just recovering now. She is resting in a bit of a coma but she'll pull through. I'm sure she'll be fine soon." She opened the door and left as quietly as possible.

"Oh, Momo, I'm sorry," I whispered, moving closer to the bed but still keeping hold of Toshiro's hand. "I'm so, so sorry, my sister, that I couldn't be there for you."

"I tried to protect her, but Aizen tricked her into thinking that I killed him," Toshiro told me quietly. "I had to keep fighting her off until I hit her too hard one night. Then while I kept her in a protected room to keep Ichimaru out, she escaped and that's when Aizen stabbed her through. I never wanted for this to happen."

"Don't blame yourself, Toshiro. If you're going to blame anyone for this, then blame me. I wasn't here when I needed to be."

"I only blamed you in the beginning because I was angry and hurt," he said, standing up beside me and holding my hand a little tighter. "I really missed you. So did she."

"I missed the both of you as well. I just… didn't know what else to do because I didn't want to have to say goodbye."

We both stood silently for a few minutes, watching Momo sleep peacefully before Toshiro spoke up again. "Do you remember back before Momo decided to become a Soul Reaper?"

"How could I forget?" I said, laughing slightly even though I felt sad. "The two of you argued all the time and I always had to break it up." He laughed with me and then I decided to embarrass him a little just to tease him like I always did. "I also remember that you used to follow me around like a puppy because you were infatuated with me."

He blushed profusely, which made his hair look even brighter, and I laughed even more. "I did not follow you around like a puppy!"

"Ah, but you haven't denied to being infatuated with me."

"To say I didn't would be a lie. Do you remember after Momo left? It was just you and me for a while."

"I remember that right before we both decided to go become Soul Reapers ourselves that you were determined to marry me one day, so much so that you wandered around calling me Imayru Hitsugaya."

"Remember the tattoos we got?"

"Toshiro, just because I was gone for a long time doesn't mean that I managed to forget everything that happened."

"How about when we first arrived here and I introduced you as my wife so they kept calling you Imayru Hitsugaya no matter how many times you protested or corrected them?" he asked, laughing again and I saw his eyes light up with his mirth.

"I think I'd much rather discuss the tattoo story than relive that terrible point in my life again," I grumbled, making him laugh even more.

"That tattoo meant that you'd marry me one day once we were both older."

"I'm not changing my last name yet, so you can forget it for now."

I gave him a small smile until I remembered our reason for being there again. The smile dropped from my face and I felt numb as I clasped Momo's hands with my free hand. I thought back to when I'd first met her back in the 1st District of West Rukon. I had been wandering, the lost soul of a little girl just trying to find peace and quiet away from people. I would hide in the forest outside of the district, chasing off anyone who would tread in my territory and shatter that small amount of peace I had managed to set for myself. Soon, the rumor of the Lost Girl of the 1st District was created. After a while, no one believed the story to be true until the day of the spring festival.

I was an older soul by then, but still angry, lost, and hostile. However, I still had the curiosity of a young girl and watched on the outskirts of the forest at all the festivities being held. I saw in particular a girl a year younger than me who seemed kind and thoughtful being followed around by a boy with white hair who had to have been a year or two younger. He was quite short for his age and took after the bigger kids with a stick if they teased him. For the first time in a while, I smiled at their antics and watched with a greater interest until they disappeared into a crowd towards the center of the district. There was no point for me to watch anymore with them gone so I went back further into the forest.

It was a few hours after nightfall when the fireworks started. I screamed in fear and agony as the blasts hurt my ears and the bright colorful lights in the sky confused me. It was no wonder I was startled to see the two of them when I happened to turn around. I stood up to my full height, looking like a wild woman as I gave them my most scathing look before taking off into the woods as fast as I could. I found the cave I had been staying in and snapped my fingers to create a fire. When I turned back around again, they were behind me once more and the girl was trying to look as non-threatening as she possibly could.

"You must be the Lost Girl we've heard all about!" the little boy said with a sense of awe. He didn't seem frightened of me at all. In fact, he looked as if he'd just received the best present in the world.

"Lil Shiro, that's rude!" the older girl exclaimed before giving me a smile, the boy sticking his tongue out at her and muttering something under his breath about the girl being a bed wetter. "Hello there! My name is Momo and this little brat is Toshiro. It's a pleasure to meet you! What is your name?"

I hadn't spoken in the longest time, so it took me a minute before I could form the word. "I… Im… Imayru," I finally sputtered out as quiet as a church mouse. I hadn't heard my own voice in such a long time that it sounded hoarse and raspy. Momo gave me the biggest smile I had ever seen and Toshiro just stared at me with his turquoise eyes bright and wide.

Momo and Toshiro took me back to Granny's place, who immediately told me that I could stay there with them for as long as I wanted. I smiled at her and started to cry, never having felt so happy in my entire existence up to that point. Toshiro came over to me after dinner later and laid his head on my lap to sleep for the night. I didn't move once until the morning when he woke, even when he stayed still on purpose to make me think he was still asleep. After a month of me living there, Momo discovered that I didn't remember my last name and therefore adopted me as her sister to give me the name of Hinamori.

I was dragged back into the present when I felt Toshiro gently rubbing my back. "Momo, I just came here to tell you that, if you're ok with it, I'm going to be your new Captain. If you don't want me to be your Captain when you wake up, then I'll choose a different Squad. I'll understand."

I knew that I wasn't going to get a response from her now, so I let go of her hand and turned to face Toshiro. I heard a choked noise and felt a hand grab mine tightly, turning around to see Momo with her eyes open. She looked at me with such intensity, her eyes boring holes into me and blazing like a contained fire. We both stared at each other for the longest time before she nodded and fell unconscious again.

"What did that mean?" Toshiro asked quietly, looking at Momo before moving his gaze back to me.

"It means that she accepts me as her captain," I told him, smiling a little.

He led me outside, on the way Retsu stopped me to tell me that she had to speak to me tomorrow morning. Toshiro even kindly showed me my way to Squad 5 Headquarters, regardless of my protests that I knew my way around. He led me to the barracks and told me that the captain's room was on the second floor there. We stood there awkwardly for a while until I did something to surprise him. I moved in front of him faster than he could stop me and hugged him tightly. I felt his wiry body flinch slightly before he hugged me back, which he never did as a child. He would always fight me and escape my grip. I felt him shaking almost imperceptibly and so I hugged him a little tighter, kissed his cheek, and pulled away to take a few steps back. He blushed bright red and practically ran off, yelling something about how he'd meet up with me after I got some rest. I smiled as I hurried inside before the sun could touch the skin that wasn't covered. Once inside my new room, I created a nest of blankets and pillows before curling up inside it to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

It was sunset before I awoke in my pillow fort, hunkering down within the shadows until I saw the sky get darker. I stretched a bit before I crawled out from the pillows and blankets, straightening out my kimono and haori and making my way to the door. I opened it to see Toshiro waiting for me impatiently as he paced about outside. I chuckled quietly and walked to him, making him glance up at me and give me a stern look.

"Night has just fallen and you now just get up?" he whined, glaring in annoyance.

"I've been nocturnal for a while now, so this is normally when I decide to wake up," I informed him.

"What's the point of being nocturnal? You're the Captain of Squad 5. You're going to need to give orders during the day while everyone works."

"It's a long story," I said, slipping into silence.

When he knew that he wouldn't get anything more out of me, he led me around the Seireitei to get me reacquainted with its layout. He said only a couple things had changed since I had left, but the rest stayed the same. Everyone who saw us walking openly gaped at us, but mostly at Toshiro. He definitely acted differently from when I saw him back when I had just arrived back at the Seireitei. I heard whispers from other Soul Reapers that they had never seen Captain Hitsugaya look so carefree before. Imagine that, I thought to myself, I managed to make Shiro open up, even if it's only to me. He then took me to see the Squad 10 Headquarters where he lived. He mentioned that he was going to have to take me for a late dinner with Rangiku in her quarters. Rangiku looked thrilled to death to see us once she found us at her doorstep, looking to have had a few drinks of sake beforehand.

"It's so good to see you yet again, Imayru!" she giggled cheerfully, giving me a hug before I could stop her. "It's good to see you as well, Captain!" Even faster than she hugged me, she had a hold of Toshiro, who immediately squirmed and pushed her away from him.

"You know better than to touch me," he grumbled. "Do it again and I'll find extra paperwork for you to do."

"And you know I won't do a single one on purpose," she laughed and beckoned us to come inside. She also offered us some sake, but both Toshiro and I refused it.

Since the nightly dinners served in the kitchens were over with by a few hours, Rangiku had only managed to snag a few sandwiches and snack food. I felt like I hadn't eaten real food in a very long time and practically scarfed down everything that was set before me. The looks the other two gave me were barely contained laughter and vague curiosity. Toshiro and Rangiku talked amongst each other for a while until I had finished my sandwiches.

"So, Imayru, when do you plan on making the marriage to my Captain official?" Rangiku teased, giving me a look of joy at my shock.

"I don't know what you're talking about!" I sputtered out, nearly choking on a bite from a biscuit.

"Oh, please, I was one of the witnesses when you two had your own little ceremony after you got the tattoos."

"We're not going to get married right now!" Toshiro groaned, covering his eyes in exasperation.

"We probably won't even get married at all!" I piped up quickly, earning a blank look from Toshiro that meant he wasn't all that happy with what I had just said.

"I can see that this topic makes the both of you rather uncomfortable, so I suppose I will leave it alone… for now," she told us both, giving us a conspiratorial grin before taking another gulp of sake. "You two really need to loosen up."

"Maybe you just need to button up," Toshiro grumbled and I had to stifle my laughter.

We stayed up for the rest of the night and talked about what had happened in the last year. They filled me in on everything, mostly what happened recently with the Ryoka finding their way into the Seireitei. They even said that the Ryoka turned out to be the heroes in all this once Aizen showed his true colors. Rangiku told me that Yoruichi was among the Ryoka and helped them get inside. I vaguely remembered her, only hearing stories about her stealth abilities and speed from Captain Ukitake when he was feeling in the mood for storytelling. When I asked where Toshiro was in all this, both of their expressions looked crestfallen as they remembered that day.

"I was severely injured by Aizen trying to avenge Momo," he growled. "He said that he had created Momo to be so dependent on him that killing her would be a blessing for her after all of this."

I stayed silent for a long time while both of them glanced at each other. I saw Rangiku reach out for me, but by that time I had already started to stand up. I walked over to a window that was right next to a bookshelf and stared up at the moon, feeling so angry that I could explode. "Where is Aizen now?" I asked through gritted teeth, seeing out of the corner of my eye that there was a mirror on the other side of the window and I had never seen myself look so pale before.

"He's in—" Rangiku started to say, but Toshiro cut her off. "For now, I think it's best that you don't know where he went."

"So he's in Hueco Mundo," I said quietly, grabbing the windowsill and gripping it tightly. "You wouldn't try and keep his location a secret from me unless that was where he decided to go."

"And you also know I wouldn't do that unless there was a good reason," he said, standing up and walking over to me. "Your Zanpakuto won't be able to protect you this time if you go there."

"I'm a lot stronger now since that day, especially after training with Kenpachi. I can hold my own while Tatsuya's spirit is gone."

"Kenpachi was defeated by the strongest Ryoka because Kenpachi just used his own strength while the Ryoka teamed up with the spirit of his Zapakuto," Toshiro pointed out to me. "I wouldn't put much stock in this halfcocked idea you've got."

I sighed, but knew that Toshiro had a point. I couldn't just run off on my own to finish off a person that ran away to my personal brand of Hell. I let go of the windowsill slowly and noticed that my silver claws dug niches into the wood. I cringed slightly before turning back to Toshiro and Rangiku. It was starting to lighten up in the room and I knew that dawn was slowly approaching. I felt a slight edge of panic and excused myself from the room, promising that I would meet up with them again soon.

I ran off toward Squad 4, remembering that I was going to meet Captain Unohana this morning but wanting to get there before the sun rose. I pulled my hood up and over my eyes to keep my face in the shadows, looking through the blue eyes to see where I was running. I thankfully remembered my way back to Squad 4 and made it there just before the light hit me. I found Captain Unohana's room and knocked on the door to announce my presence. She opened the door for me and gave me a smile to welcome me inside. I saw the light sneaking down as the sun went up, so I hurried through the door and started to shake nervously.

"Are you alright, Captain Hinamori?" she asked me, looking very concerned.

"The sunlight and I don't agree anymore," I told her as she led me over to a table in the middle of the room.

"Seems like you need more of the prescription then," Unohana said to herself. As she sat down across from me at the table, she asked, "How much of it do you have left?"

"I've had to ration it out. The sun hurts me like what a human would call a vampire. I've had to turn nocturnal just to avoid it and the nightmares."

"You're still having the nightmares?"

"Only if I sleep at night."

"I can get you more of the prescription, Imayru, but we will have to be careful about increasing the dosage," Unohana told me cautiously. "I'm deeply afraid that increasing it might kill you."

"The poison running through my veins is slowly killing me already," I responded bitterly. "The potion making me overdose would be a mercy killing."

"You can't actually mean that!" Unohana protested, standing up quickly and giving me a stern look. "I will not allow this self-pitying in my quarters! You were always strong, now find that inner strength and don't stop believing that we can find a cure!"

"You haven't been able to find one yet!" I yelled, feeling frustrated and wanting to take it out on someone else. "I can't live like this and be around other people or they'll find out I'm weak! That's why I requested that Yamamoto give me an assignment in the Human World!"

"Say another negative word and I will make my Bankai eat you," Unohana said quietly, giving me a look that meant she was serious. When I just looked down at the floor, she walked over to me and patted my shoulder in a motherly way. "I know that it's been hard on you. It's been hard on all of us, even more so on the people who are closest to you. It got worse when you thought you needed to leave us to keep your secret safe. But some of us haven't given up hope that we can cure this and have kept working since you left."

I nodded. "Thank you for not giving up."

"You're welcome, my dear. Now, can you make it back to your headquarters in the sun?"

I told her that I could, but even so she went over to a shelf to get a small vial of liquid. It was a golden liquid that was translucent with little sparks that leapt from the surface. I took it and immediately gulped it down. It felt like liquid fire travelling down my throat and into my stomach, where it seemed to spread through my veins. I gasped as it took a turn for the painful side as it always did. Unohana gazed at me worriedly, but still opened the door for me to leave. I kept my hood down as far as I could and walked slowly back to my Squad. My eyes burned from the sunlight even though I looked though the blue eyes of my hood. The pain of the liquid going through my system combined with the sunlight sapping my strength had me wobbling every few steps. I was almost back when I wobbled too far and fell. Thankfully, Captain Ukitake happened to be there to catch me. He looked so surprised to see me like this and I felt the liquid forcing me unconscious.

"Please," I managed to say to him and saw through the black spots in my vision that he looked confused as well. "Don't tell Toshiro…" I went limp in his arms as my vision went completely dark and I passed out entirely.

* * *

I woke up in my cocoon of blankets, feeling groggy and still in pain as I opened my eyes. I couldn't move yet but I saw Ukitake sitting near the opening of the pillow fort. I felt as if I had a livewire running through my veins and whimpered quietly. Ukitake looked back at me and saw that I was awake before turning back to stare at whatever it was he was looking at before.

"You've been unconscious for about two hours," Ukitake told me calmly. "Hitsugaya hasn't stopped by yet and I'm sure if he had known what happened to you he'd be here by now. You're very lucky that I am one of the few people that know about your condition."

"Thank you, Ukitake," I told him hoarsely.

"Why haven't you told Hitsugaya about your condition?" he asked flatly, feeling the need to get right down to business.

"Is not wanting to tell someone you deeply care for that you're dying a slow painful death really so wrong?"

"Is it necessary for you to answer a question with a question?" he asked sarcastically.

I smiled a bit and knew that this was one situation I wouldn't win. "It seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Imayru, he needs to know soon," Ukitake said, glancing over at me and giving me a sad look. "He needs you to tell him and he can't just find out on his own. If you think he felt betrayed when you left, this will be much worse. No, he won't like hearing that you're dying but it's much better that the knowledge came from you."

I stayed silent and just nodded, knowing that he was right. It would be wrong to keep something like this from him for so long. He would probably grow to hate me. Ukitake stood up and bowed quickly, taking his leave and most likely heading back to his headquarters. I was still paralyzed from the pain and laid there within the shadows that were my haven until I felt up to moving again. It was hours later before I could move even a little when I heard a knock at my door and knew that it was time for me to get up. I told them to come in and saw that it was Toshiro. He looked around and took notice of me in my pillow fort, laughing quietly and his eyes shone.

"The Lost Girl looks to be more comfortable in her cave again," he said, coming over to sit before hole that led inside. "May I come in?" I motioned for him to enter and he chuckled, crawling inside and sitting opposite of me. I sat up, grimacing as the pain flared in my stomach where the liquid still sloshed. I saw his gaze sharpen as he looked at my face and waited for me to tell him why I seemed to be in pain.

"There's something I have to tell you later, but right now isn't a good time," I said slowly, not sure how to word what I had to say.

"As long as you promise to actually tell me, I'll overlook the timeframe," he stated simply. We stayed quiet for a while, just enjoying each other's company until I started to yawn heavily. The liquid always made me drowsy after taking it, so I always made sure to take it just before it was time to sleep. Toshiro noticed that I looked exhausted and moved over to sit beside me. "Here, lie your head on my lap and go to sleep. I'll stay here and keep you company."

"Are you sure?" I asked him, not quite believing what I was hearing.

"Of course I'm sure," he said rather huffily, just like I was used to. "Back when you didn't even know me well, you let me sleep on your lap all night even though you didn't sleep a wink. Not only that but you let me stay there until Granny caught me."

No amount of protesting could stop him from insisting that I sleep on his lap. I decided then that I might as well comply because I was exhausted. I moved next to him just far enough so that I could lean to my right to put my head on his leg. I curled my legs up to my chest as far as they could go and closed my eyes. As I was slowly drifting asleep, I could have sworn that I felt a hand petting my hair comfortingly.

It was sunset by the time I woke up again, feeling well rested and in no pain at all. I stretched out and noticed that my pillow was really warm compared to how cold the room seemed to be. It took me a minute or so to remember that I was sleeping on Toshiro. I sat up faster than a striking cobra and turned to face Toshiro, blushing fiercely the entire time only to see that he was asleep as well. He did always say that the only way to grow taller was to get a good amount of rest. I smiled and figured that this might be one of the few times that he actually relaxed instead of being so serious all the time. He looked so young and vulnerable while asleep. I gently laid my head on his shoulder and rubbed his back slowly so that he wouldn't wake up. I closed my eyes and just relaxed, not thinking about any of the negative things that were going on in my life for once.

Dusk had fallen by the time I noticed a change in Toshiro's breathing. I sat up to look at him just to see that he was quite awake and grinning like a fool. I knew it was because he thought it was hilarious that he could get away with the same trick twice. We both stared at each other, his grin slipping from his face as he looked me in the eyes. I didn't notice it at first but our heads were getting slowly getting closer together and I felt the room temperature even out. I closed my eyes at the same time as Toshiro, our lips just about to touch when I heard my door slam open. We jumped apart quickly, making the pillow cave collapse on top of us. We floundered our way out of the pile of blankets and pillows to see Rangiku, who was doubled over from laughing so hard.

"Judging from the blushes and glares you both are throwing my way, I'd have to say that I just interrupted something that was about to go on between the two of you," she told us in between gulps of air. Then, with a gasp of fake shock, she exclaimed, "Now I know what was going on! You two were about to kiss! And to think that I messed up your opportunity, Captain!"

"Rangiku, unless you want to do all of yours and my paperwork tomorrow, I suggest you leave right now," he growled, trying to sound serious to her even though he was blushing profusely.

She turned around and ran, on her way out she yelled, "You and I both know I still won't do it!"

"I just love how energetic she is," I said sarcastically, making him smile a little.

"If you love it that much, I'll trade you Lieutenants."

We crawled completely out of what was left of my cocoon and fixed our disheveled clothing so that we could walk outside to see what reason Rangiku had for interrupting us. She immediately told me that she just happened to run into Head Captain Yamamoto, who asked her to run an errand for him. "He said something about a large, strong Hollow about to enter Karakura Town that might be too much for the substitute Soul Reaper to handle and since you know the territory so well, he asked that you would take care of it."

"I'd be happy to," I said. "I'd rather not have unnecessary deaths when I could just go take care of it myself."

A doorway to the Land of the Living appeared before us and I smiled, getting mentally prepared for a good fight ahead. I said my goodbyes to the both of them and was about to walk through the doors when I was grabbed by the shoulder. I was quickly turned around to see Toshiro with a determined look before he put both hands on either side of my cheeks, tilted my head back a little, and kissed me. I melted against him, surprised and thrilled all at the same time. He kissed me once more before pulling away and giving me a cocky grin.

"Take care of yourself over there," he told me simply as he took a few steps backwards to stand beside Rangiku.

Right before I turned around to the doorway, I saw Rangiku singing a children's song about Toshiro and I sitting in a tree and kissing, Toshiro blushing again and crossing his arms as he looked away. I ran through the doorway before I could start blushing as well. I used Shunpo to get through the tunnel before it closed on me. It was nighttime in Karakura Town just like it was in the Soul Society. I ended up in a park that was higher up compared to the city itself and searched for the presence of the Hollow I was supposed to eliminate. I didn't sense it yet and especially didn't see it flying about the city, so I turned around and headed into the woodsy part of the park.

Maybe it was because I was still reeling from the kiss with Toshiro or maybe I was just concentrating extremely hard on trying to sense the Hollow that I didn't even see it coming, but I entered in a trap the moment I found myself in a large clearing in the woods. I was standing in the middle of the clearing one second, slammed into the ground hard enough that I lost my breath the next. I gasped in an attempt to force much needed air back into my lungs and felt a large hand keeping me pinned to the grass. I felt some of my ribs had cracked and I had a gash above my left eyebrow where a sharp rock cut me. It was when I got my breath back that I felt poison seeping in from my clothing. I wanted to whimper in pain but I wasn't about to give this particular Hollow the satisfaction of hearing my cries. I turned my head in an attempt to see who had a hold of me and instantly had a cold shiver run down my spine. No, it can't be, I thought to myself.

* * *

_Two days later…_

"Captain Hitsugaya!" I heard a voice yell from outside my office. I looked up from the paperwork I was just finishing up to see my Lieutenant Rangiku run inside and seemed very worried.

"Rangiku, something must be wrong if you've somehow managed to remember your manners," I said, giving her a stern look. "If not, then you can assist me in the paperwork I have left."

"Captain, have you forgotten the mission that Imayru went on?" she asked incredulously, openly gaping at him.

"She hasn't been gone that long," I said, grabbing the last pile of paperwork and dividing half of it for Rangiku to fill out when she "got to it." I pushed over her half of the pile and told her, "She is used to being out in the Human World for long periods of time."

She stared even more at him before finally shaking her head. "Ok, Toshiro, I didn't want to do this out of respect for Imayru but you leave me no choice. There's something you need to know about her."

"What is it?" I asked now that she had my full attention. I was beginning to get an uneasy feeling deep in my gut.

Rangiku took a deep breath, preparing her speech in her head and surely knowing I wasn't going to like what she had to say. "First of all, let it be completely known that I don't just eavesdrop on people on purpose and that this was a complete accident. I didn't mean—"

"Rangiku! Get to the point!" I groaned.

"Fine, Mr. Impatience! I don't know if she told you yet or was going to tell you at all, but I had gone to drop something off to Captain Unohana when I heard both her and Imayru talking in her office. I heard them argue about a certain condition she had that didn't have a cure and that's when I heard that she was… well, Toshiro… Imayru is dying."

Her last words barely even registered in my mind as I sat there in complete shock. Imayru couldn't possibly be dying, I thought to myself. She was so lively and energetic that it just seemed to be an impossibility. I looked back up at Rangiku, still drowning in my thoughts when she started to say something else.

"She was poisoned by a Hollow in Hueco Mundo and ever since that day, she can't be out in the sunlight for long or it begins to hurt her badly."

"Before she left, she said that she had something she had to tell me later," I said hoarsely. "What I don't understand is why you're telling me this now."

"Toshiro, she's been gone for two days without checking in at least once with someone from the Soul Society!" she yelled, finally snapping me out of my stupor. "She needs to take a potion every so often to be able to even be in the sunlight! I honestly think that something might have happened to her because this should never have even lasted an entire day for her! She would have been finished with the mission within two hours!"

"I have the solution for your problem!" I heard someone exclaim from outside my office doors. They opened quickly to reveal Rukia Kuchiki and her brother, Captain Byakuya Kuchiki, who looked as disinterested as always. Rukia gave me a comforting smile in an attempt to keep me calm, but I still felt worry gnawing at the back of my mind as she said to me, "Don't you worry about a thing, Captain Hitsugaya. The Head Captain is sending my brother and me to Karakura Town to look for her with Ichigo and Renji. You know that if we team up with those two, nothing can stop us."

"I'm going with you," I told them, standing quickly and walking over to the stand to grab my Zanpakuto Hyorinmaru. The temperature in the room plummeted and I noticed frost growing on my desk.

"Head Captain Yamamoto knew you would say that and told me to inform you that you are commanded to stay in the Seireitei," Byakuya said in an extremely straightforward way. His no nonsense attitude was beginning to force me to see sense, even if I wanted nothing more than to run off to find Imayru.

I looked at them both, giving them a determined stare as the temperature dropped again. "Swear to me that you'll bring her back alive no matter what."

"We swear," Rukia said and Byakuya mumbled the same thing.

They left my office as fast as they arrived and I sank to my knees, feeling the fear for Imayru's safety pierce my heart like a dagger. Rangiku hit the floor in front of me and immediately looked worried for me, grabbing my hands and clasping them tightly. "What am I going to do?" I whispered, feeling like I didn't have a clue was killing me.

"We just wait and immerse ourselves in our duties so that we don't drive ourselves crazy," she told me, smiling a bit to distract me from my pain. I tried to force a smile to mirror hers, but it just came out as a grimace so I stopped. Rangiku made me stand up and led me back to my desk, finding me more paperwork to do to keep my mind off of Imayru until they found her and brought her back to me.

* * *

I didn't remember passing out but I did remember waking up in a haze of agony. I opened my eyes and tried to see where I was now, but my vision was blurry. The only thing I could think of that was causing this was that I had been poisoned even more. I shook my head and closed my eyes for a minute before trying again, getting the results I wanted and looking at my surroundings to see that we must be further into the forest part of the park. I tried to move around but discovered that I was stuck up against a tree trunk. I looked down and saw strange goo keeping me in place but at least this kind didn't burn me.

I glanced upwards to see that dawn was minutes away and I felt panic make my heart race faster than a hummingbird's wings. I couldn't be caught in the sun or I would burn so bad. I tried to get my silver claws free so that I could cut my way out but there was no moving to do so. I could only watch in horror as, for the third day in a row, the sun appeared over the tree branches onto me. I tried to hold back my screams for as long as I possibly could, but after about ten minutes my skin burst into flames and I shrieked in agony. I could hear the familiar laughter before I finally passed out, only to wake during midday and repeat the whole process over again. Three mornings of torture and I already wanted to die. The Hollow knew my weakness and exploited it better than anyone ever could. I felt a claw pierce my shoulder and venom spread through my body. I shrieked louder than before, hating myself for being so weak.

When night blessedly came, I knew a different torture would start anew and I glared once the Hollow showed himself. It was a large Hollow that was stronger than a Menos Grande, one that had an affinity with poisons and venoms of all kinds. Its mask was like a lion and it had a tail with a stinger that was like a thin needle. Its body was green and purple and it had red eyes that were quite intelligent. This Hollow was the reason I lost the spirit of my Tatsuya and the reason I was dying. I swore up a storm when it came closer, calling it every bad name under the sun and making it look taken aback with my vulgar language.

"As soon as I'm free, I will kill you, you stupid son of a—" I screamed before it cut me off.

"Such language!" it exclaimed gleefully, grinning at me as if it had already won.

"Listen to me, you idiot," I growled, glaring even more and hitting it with my spiritual pressure. I watched it pause as it assessed my strength. "I don't care why you think this is so amusing to you, but I swear on my life that I will kill you, whether or not I do so today or some other day down the road.

"Too bad I don't believe you," it said, its grin widening and it looked even more menacing.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

It had been a week since I had been abducted by the Hollow who ruined my life. I decided right on the spot that I never again wanted to see the sun because all it did was cause me more pain than I ever experienced. I shivered uncontrollably since day five since large amounts of poison had been injected into me and I was not reacting well to having more in my body. The only things that kept me sane were the thoughts of Momo, the last moment I had with Toshiro, and the thought of getting bloody revenge on this Hollow. I no longer made any noises, either from pain or when the Hollow spoke to me. I had shut down and begun to live in a fantasy world that I had created to make myself feel better under these circumstances. It was nighttime again when I saw the Hollow appear. My conscious mind shut down and I watched it like a zombie, not moving a muscle and not saying a word. It was then that I felt a slight burn at the back of my mind, but I ignored it because it didn't seem all that important to me right then.

"Time for more poison, my dear," the Hollow hissed, grinning maniacally as its stinger whipped in front of its body to lodge itself in my stomach. I was so used to the torture now that I barely felt the needle of the stinger slide through my skin to inject the poison once more. I stared blankly off into space and didn't pay the Hollow any attention. The burning in the back of my mind grew, a tiny flame that seemed to burn brighter the more pain I took. Throughout the night like it always did, the Hollow would inject me with more poison only this time was different. I felt the flame grow until it was like a bonfire that pushed its way to the front part of my mind.

_Fight,_ it said to me softly. Before long, it turned into a quiet mantra. Another week went by and I barely blinked whatsoever, my mind blank except for the mantra and I stared unseeingly into the distance. The mantra was much louder and I felt my vision slip into blackness with each word.

_Fight, fight, fight,_ it said, growling it into my mind now. It sent bolts of pain into my forehead and I finally wanted to whimper as I began to feel again.

_Fight! Fight! Fight!_ The voice roared its mantra now, seeming very familiar but I couldn't place how.

_Fight! NOW!_

I immediately heard a screech that seemed inhuman until I realized that it came from me. I blacked out as I felt a surge of rage that was so strong that it pushed my conscious mind out of the way quickly.

When I awoke from the haze of rage, I was standing in the middle of the clearing, leaning heavily against my Zanpakuto and noticing the large remains of the Hollow deteriorating slowly from a ragged slash in its mask. I panted and tried to catch my breath, not believing what just happened. I felt a rush of happiness when I discovered that the voice telling me to fight was Tatsuya. I heard running feet approaching me, at least four people that were getting closer. I heard a woman's voice shout and the footsteps got closer before stopping just behind me.

"Captain Hinamori?" I heard the woman ask. I turned around to see Captain Kuchiki, his sister, his Lieutenant, and an orange haired stranger with a strange Zanpakuto.

"Are you alright?" the stranger asked me, tilting his head to the side to assess me.

I gave them all a huge smile that seemed to only worry them and said, "I've never been better."

Right after uttering those words, I collapsed from exhaustion and was immediately unconscious.

* * *

"Toshiro Hitsugaya!"

I blearily opened my eyes as I heard a male voice shout my name from the courtyard. I had just managed to fall asleep for the first time since Imayru was gone, even going so far as to have everyone know that there would be strict quiet hours at night from now on, only to have some delinquent wake me. I grabbed my haori and threw it on over my nightclothes so I could run outside.

"Who in the hell dares to shout my name during quiet hours?" I yelled, glaring at the figure standing in the middle of the courtyard. As I stormed closer to the figure, I noticed the spiky orange hair and the huge Zanpakuto, which led me to believe that this was the Ryoka that Rukia mentioned would be going with them.

"You must be Toshiro," the Ryoka said, grinning at me. "My name is Ichigo Kurosaki and it's your lucky day. We found Imayru."

Ignoring the blatant disregard for my title and opting for the knowledge of Imaryu, I said, "Take me to her right now."

Ichigo nodded and used Shunpo in the direction of Squad 4 Headquarters. I immediately followed suit, catching up with him quickly until we were side-by-side. Our speed made the trip much quicker and we arrived in the courtyard in only five minutes. Ichigo stopped to catch his breath while I ran to the hospital as fast as I could. I ran past a bunch of Soul Reapers until I was stopped by Unohana, who grabbed me by the shoulders until I calmed down.

"She's in a special room made up for her at the top floor of the hospital," she explained to me in a calming tone.

"Take me to her. Please, Captain Unohana," I practically begged.

She smiled gently and walked into the hospital through a maze of corridors before we finally reached the stairway. After about five flights of stairs, I was told that the whole floor was dedicated to special cases so that no harm would come to the staff or the patients. "There is good news and bad news that I must impart with you before I allow you to see her," Unohana said, stopping me mid step with an outstretched arm. "Which kind of news would you prefer to hear first?"

"The good news."

"Alright, Captain Hitsugaya, the good news it is. Firstly, there has been a sign of life from Captain Hinamori's Zanpakuto. The spirit of her blade woke long enough to save her. When she was found, she was smiling and they could sense a vague spirit pressure coming from the Zanpakuto itself."

"That's a good sign, right?" I asked, feeling happy for Imayru that there was a chance to get Tatsuya out of its shell.

"Now for the bad news," she said, looking about her as if she didn't quite know how to say what she needed to and finally her gaze settled upon mine. "The Hollow tortured her extensively, alternating between light torture, which consisted of binding her to a tree and keeping her there in exposed sunlight all day long, and injecting her with more of the poison that was already killing her. I'm afraid that her life expectancy is much lower now and I don't know how much longer she is going to live."

"What are you saying?" I choked out, feeling a burning sensation from my eyes that I hadn't felt in a long time.

"Unfortunately, I'm saying that she may soon die before we can find a cure. She can't be in sunlight any longer or the trauma might kill her as well."

Unohana didn't speak after that, just led me over to where Imayru was sleeping. The entire floor's windows were blacked out so that no light could find its way in and there was a large bed hidden in the shadowy part of the room. Just from where I was standing ten feet away, I could see how broken she looked. She was bloody and bruised, sleeping away the torture she endured while in the hands of the monster that targeted her once more. I felt numb as I walked over to her bedside while Unohana left to give me some privacy.

"Imayru, I'm so sorry," I whispered, feeling something wet drip down onto my cheeks. I touched my fingertips to my skin below my eye and realized that it was my tears. I grabbed a chair and pulled it next to her bed so that I could sit next to her. I grabbed her hands and held them gently, not knowing what else to do.

I heard footsteps behind me and I whipped around to tell that person to leave immediately when I caught sight of them. "Momo," I whispered, gaping at her in shock. "You're ok now?"

"I'm still very sore, but I'm alive," she said, giving me a wan smile. Her smile dropped when she realized what she had just said. "I heard from Unohana that Imayru is dying."

"I guess she's been dying ever since she got back from Hueco Mundo and hasn't wanted to tell us," I murmured, starting to feel numb again.

"Don't be angry at her when she wakes up, Toshiro," Momo said calmly. "Back before we all became Soul Reapers, she would always do everything she could to avoid hurting us. She knew that telling us that she was dying would hurt us greatly, so she hid in the Human World." Momo walked closer to me and placed her hand on my shoulder in an attempt to comfort me. "Do you remember when she broke your favorite toy a year before I left to be a Soul Reaper?"

"Of course I do," I said. The memory was a fond one for me because of how comical it was at the time. "I'd never seen one person act so shady before."

Back when I was a child, I had this dragon toy that I always slept with at night because I thought it would keep me safe. I would take it with me everywhere I went, no matter the situation. One day, I left the dragon toy home just long enough to go to the candy store when Imayru was cleaning my room. She accidentally bumped it just right so that it fell to the ground and broke into many pieces, so many that she couldn't stick them back together without them falling apart. She freaked out and hid it when she saw me coming back home. When I asked her where my dragon went, she acted so scared and upset but still said that it had to go off on a quick adventure before coming back later tonight. I could sense that she wasn't telling me something and interrogated her further about this "adventure," forcing her to come up with a complete legend about the dragon and convincing me that it was a sacred dragon toy that was secretly alive. Imayru snuck out later in the afternoon with my toy and managed to fix it with the powers a Soul Reaper had. That was the night when she gave me a new and improved dragon toy that could actually fly that I loved so much, also the night we told her she should leave to become a Soul Reaper.

"Why didn't she leave that night?" I whispered, feeling the numbness draining away and being replaced with an overwhelming sadness.

"The fact that she could be a Soul Reaper didn't matter to her at all," Momo said and I turned slightly to see that she had tears streaming down her cheeks. "What mattered most to her were the both of us and she knew that leaving would hurt us all, so she stayed."

I heard a whimper coming from Imayru and looked at her to see that it seemed like she was having a nightmare. From what I could tell, it must have been a bad one for she whimpered again a few seconds later. The room temperature seemed to just heat up instantly and Imayru went up in flames as she shrieked in fear and agony. I hissed as I had to pull my hands away, my skin slightly burned but I cooled it by icing them over. I looked at Imayru in shock as I finally noticed that the flames covering her body were shadowy and dark.

"Momo, go get Unohana right now!" I shouted, trying to freeze the room to keep the temperature stable and make it snow on Imayru as Momo ran over to the stairs as fast as she could. The snow melted fast, but then the water evaporated too fast to put out the flames. I increased the snow, increasing my spiritual pressure in the room just to keep up with Imayru, her spiritual pressure going off the charts as her nightmare took control. Imayru screamed again, her eyes opening to reveal bright red irises with no pupils and her screaming turning into a roar. She was on her hands and feet before me as ethereal black wings and a tail were formed from the flames. She growled as she took notice of me and slashed at me with her silver claws, slicing my cheek before I could jump backwards fast enough.

With a howl of anguish, she jumped and seemed to glide over to the top of a bookshelf, hissing at me as I ran over to her. I heard running and I knew that Momo found Unohana. "Hitsugaya, I need you to get back!" I treaded backwards until I was standing beside Momo, Imayru sitting on her haunches as she assessed if the situation was dangerous. "I'm starting to think that since Tatsuya was forced to reveal itself in Imayru's time of need, any circumstance that it deems threatening to her safety will draw it out like now. Did she happen to be having a nightmare right before this?"

"Oh, poor Tatsuya," Momo whispered, crying some more as she watched Imayru stay still as she observed us.

"Captain Hitsugaya," Unohana tried saying as Imayru wailed suddenly, startling us all when the building began to shake, "I think it best if you try and talk to Tatsuya and let it know that Imayru is safe. I'm afraid that I can't try to tranquilize her while she's on fire."

I nodded and took a cautious step forward, seeing that Imayru was inspecting me but not growling yet. When I got closer, I heard a rumbling noise come from Imayru and I knew that meant she wanted me to stop where I was. "Tatsuya," I said quietly, keeping my hands up where they could be seen so I didn't pose a threat to the dragon that had control. I saw Imayru sit upright in attention as she scrutinized me, waiting to see what I wished for. "It's good to see you again, Tatsuya. Do you remember me? It's Toshiro Hitsugaya."

The flames simmered down a notch as she tilted her head to the side faintly, staring intensely at me before giving me a vague nod. I felt a rush of relief, hoping that this meant Tatsuya wouldn't attack me a second time. "You know I won't hurt Imayru. I would rather die than let anything happen to her. May I come closer?" Another vague nod after a minute pause, letting me walk all the way to the front of bookshelf. She lay down on her stomach to look at me, dangling her left arm down to me and brushing my cheek with the tops of her silver claws. "Please let Imayru come back to me. I swear to you that she will be safe whenever I'm with her."

A deep rumble came from Imayru's throat as an ancient voice spoke through her. "Swear it on your life."

"I swear on my life that I will protect her," I told her Zanpakuto's spirit.

With a nod that was much more noticeable, Tatsuya made Imayru jump down from the bookshelf. "Find a cure," Tatsuya growled at Unohana, eyes blazing red. "I can't keep feeding her my strength for much longer." With a roar that shook the building once more, the flames vanished and Imayru's eyes rolled back as she went cataleptic. I grabbed her before she could hit the ground, picking her up and carrying her back to bed. Unohana told me that she'd have the singed sheets swapped out later after Imayru got some rest. Momo and Unohana left me with her, saying that Momo needed to get some more rest.

I sat back down in the chair beside Imayru and grabbed her hands again, feeling tears slide down my cheeks faster than I could stop them. I hunched over, leaned my forehead against the skin of her hands, and let out the pent up emotion that I had been holding in for two weeks of not knowing whether or not she was dead or alive. The tears flowed quickly and dripped down onto her hands. What am I going to do now, I thought to myself sadly.

* * *

I was drowning in darkness. I couldn't see anything, not even my own hand in front of my face. I just felt as if I was floating in midair, the only sound I could hear was the crackling of flames. I heard a faint roar behind me, turning around to find it only to have it roar behind me once more. It sounded so familiar but I couldn't place where I'd heard it before. There was a large thudding noise behind me and I whipped around to see blood red eyes staring at me. It opened its mouth slightly and I saw the light of flames down its throat, its nostrils even lighting up from the fire. I should have felt fear while staring into its eyes as if I was hypnotized, but I felt… safe.

"Tatsuya?" I asked, feeling a tear glide down my cheek as the eyes softened ever so slightly.

_Yes, little one,_ Tatsuya rumbled. _It's been a long time since we've spoken._

"I missed you so much, Tatsuya!" I yelped, running to him and wrapping my arms around his neck. His laughter reverberated through the dark space and into me, so I smiled and closed my eyes as I felt the comfort only my Zanpakuto's spirit could give me.

_I've always been with you, Imayru, even when you thought me to be dead. I've been working hard to fight the poison that has been trying to kill you. However, since its poisoning you, I'm being poisoned as well and have changed a little._

"Changed how?" I asked, looking back into his eyes.

_I'm not the same kind of dragon you knew me to be. I'm… darker._

"It doesn't matter to me," I said with a fierce determination. "You'll always be my Tatsuya and my best friend. My partner."

Tatsuya roared happily and I laughed, smiling crazily as I watched him. He then gave me a somber look before saying, _You've been asleep for long enough. Toshiro misses you._

Tatsuya leaned his head back down and pressed his snout against my forehead lightly, forcing the darkness to swallow him up and the shadows to ripple. I started to hear sniffling noises nearby and I knew that I was waking. I felt someone's hands clasping mine and little droplets of a wet substance dripping down onto my skin. The hands let go of mine but I immediately felt a light pressure on my forehead as something soft brushed in between my eyebrows. Another sniffling noise was heard and even the sounds of someone standing. I felt panic rip through me as I lashed out at the remnants of the darkness to grab hold of the presence I sensed.

"Toshiro…" I whispered, opening my eyes to slits and saw that I had a hold of someone's sleeve. My vision was so blurry I couldn't tell who it was by sight but I could hear his gasp.

"Imayru!" Toshiro said breathlessly, moving over to me quickly to clasp my hands once more.

I smacked his hands away and just sat up a little so I could wrap my arms around his shoulders to hug him to me. I leaned my forehead against the delicate curve of his neck as his arms went around me. I grasped at the back of his haori and felt his body shake as he cried quietly, so I held him closer as I wept softly. Once I didn't feel any more tears dripping onto my hair, I sat up and wiped under his eyes with my thumb. Toshiro took my hand gently and pressed his lips against my knuckles.

"How do you feel?" Toshiro asked me, his lips still against my skin.

"I feel as if I'd been thrown under a bus," I joked, smiling a little and watching as his turquoise eyes sparkled from it. "How have you been doing?"

"I've been worried about you," he told me, making me lie back in bed and sitting at my side. He slid my bangs out of my eyes and then cupped my cheek, giving me a small smile but I could see the sadness in his eyes.

"You know that I'm dying, don't you," I whispered, feeling awful about not having told him yet. I knew that I was definitely going to tell him, just that then wasn't the right time and I couldn't come up with the right words. "I meant to tell you, I—"

"Don't," he said, cutting me off. "I know you were going to tell me soon. You didn't know that you were going to be attacked by that Hollow. Do you remember any of what happened to you?"

"I remember that the Hollow from Hueco Mundo found me again and tortured me nonstop for two weeks before I blacked out, only to find that it was dead. I figured that Tatsuya saved me after all. The next thing I remember is waking up not that long ago."

"You don't remember anything in between that?" he asked incredulously, giving me a look of disbelief.

"Not a thing," I said.

"Imayru… you had a bad nightmare while you were unconscious. It made Tatsuya believe that you were in danger and he took control of your body. He scratched me pretty good," he said, rubbing a bandage on his cheek that I didn't notice until then.

"It doesn't sound like Tatsuya to just retreat like that. How did you make him leave?"

"I had to swear on my life that I will always protect you."

I smiled up at him and he leaned down to kiss me, cupping the back of my neck as we closed our eyes. When I heard a roaring noise in the background, I pulled away a little with my hand on his chest. He gave me a quizzical look when I crawled out of bed. Since my haori and kimono were being washed, I put on one that was both sleeveless and backless before flash stepping to the stairs. I heard Toshiro yell before I jumped down five flights of stairs and startled a few of Unohana's subordinates and patients. I barely noticed that it was daytime as I flash stepped down the hallways, hearing a familiar voice calling out to me from the courtyard. I heard another voice behind me but paid it no heed as I raced down the hallways and found the doorway that led outside. I saw a large shape lying on the ground, its tail curled gracefully around its feet and its wings pressed elegantly against its spine. One more flash step would have me outside and I took it without a second thought, feeling elation shoot through my veins and I welcomed it with open arms.

I was immediately jumped upon and smashed into the ground, skidding to a halt just outside the doorway as the weight tried to pin me there. I could see that same shadowy figure watching me as I reached my free hand out to it and it touched the sunlight just outside the door. I heard an inhuman noise escape my lips as my hand burned, burning the first layer of skin completely off wherever the light touched and would have continued to burn all the way through the bone if Toshiro hadn't yanked my arm back swiftly.

"What the hell did you think you were doing!?" he bellowed as he dragged me to my feet and turned me forcefully to face him, making the patients that were standing around gawking shrink back against the walls.

I looked back at entrance to the hospital to point at the large dragon that was lying in the courtyard when I saw that it was now gone. "But… I saw a dragon out there," I whispered, confused.

Toshiro grumbled something about ditsy women and grabbed me so he could throw me over his shoulder. I squirmed in an attempt to get free but he had a tight hold on me, carrying me past a gaping Momo and a smiling Unohana. Up the stairs we went, reaching the top floor quickly and he dropped me on my feet. Momo and Unohana followed behind us and formed a barricade so that I couldn't escape back out into the sunlight. Unohana pulled out a salve and bandages for my hand, wiping on the salve as I tried not to show that I was in pain. She had the bandage wrapped tightly on my hand before I could yelp and gave me a kind smile.

"You are to get your rest now while it's light outside and not leave this floor until night falls," she said, giving me a stern stare. "After dusk, you will be released into Captain Hitsugaya's care and will stay at Squad 10 Headquarters until you recover."

She escorted Momo out of the room and placed a barrier on the stairs so I couldn't try to get out until nightfall. With a sigh, I headed back to bed and sat on the edge, dangling my feet off the mattress and sighing as I thought about what had just happened. I thought it was Tatsuya's spirit that beckoned me outside, but now I was beginning to wonder if the poison was starting to make me hallucinate. I finally managed to escape my thoughts long enough to see that Toshiro was kneeling before me with a worried expression on his face. He cupped my cheek with his hand, his thumb gently rubbing my cheekbone and he looked into my eyes as if he was trying to hear my thoughts.

"Are you alright?" he asked softly and I could see in his eyes that he was genuinely concerned.

"I seriously thought that I saw the newly manifested form of Tatsuya out in the courtyard," I told him, closing my eyes and leaning into his touch. "I think that I must be hallucinating from all the poison that's been injected in me."

"Imayru," he said gently, making me look at him once he uttered my name. "It's not your fault. You're dying right now. These things happen sometimes. I think you need some more rest and maybe that will make the hallucinations better."

He got up and walked over to the other side of the bed, getting under the covers and beckoning me over to him. I came over to him and got under the sheets that smelled vaguely of smoke, curling up beside Toshiro. He grabbed me by the waist and pulled me closer, placing my head on his chest and wrapping his arms around me.

"I'm glad you're ok," he whispered, kissing the top of my hair as I slowly drifted to sleep.

"Aside from dying, you mean?" I snickered sleepily, placing a hand on his chest.

"That should have been self-explanatory," he said huffily.

I laughed again and silently lay there until I heard Toshiro fall asleep, deciding to look up at him to see his sleeping face. He looked troubled, not the carefree sleep he usually had. I slowly stroked his chest as I lay my head over his heart, listening to the beats slow down as his breathing calmed. When I knew for sure that he wasn't feeling as pained while sleeping, I finally relaxed enough to fall asleep myself. I dreamt that Toshiro and I were flying about in the sky while using our Bankai, fire and ice finally able to coexist.

I woke up but didn't open my eyes, hoping that if I kept them closed I could go back to the dream that made me feel so at peace. I didn't feel lost and I didn't feel like my world would soon end no matter what I did, which was the first time I'd felt that way in a long time. I guess Toshiro had been awake for a while because I felt him leisurely rubbing my back. I looked up at him again and he once more had the troubled expression, but he smiled instead so he wouldn't worry me more.

"Dusk has finally fallen," Toshiro told me as I sat up a little. "How about we head back to my headquarters and eat dinner with Rangiku?"

I agreed and climbed off of him, grabbing his sleeve and pulling him after me. He slipped his sleeve free once we were standing next to the bed and took my hand, sliding his fingers between mine. He grabbed a bag that held my now cleaned clothes and slung it over his back as he took me back to Rangiku's quarters. The patients were all put into their respective rooms for the night and only a few of Unohana's subordinates roamed about the hallways as we passed by. The trip back to his headquarters took longer than normal since we took our time. I looked up at the stars, remembering back to when I had just come to live with Toshiro and Momo and found comfort in the stars when things got too chaotic for me. Those were the times when Toshiro came to sit with me, silently watching the stars with me and keeping me company. I had never felt this relieved to be around my friends since finding out that I was dying and I was grateful to have them.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

That night was a blur of activity, mostly of Rangiku and her drunken antics. She told me embarrassing stories of her captain from the time I had been gone. He spent a good amount of time arguing with her that certain aspects of her story were full of falsehoods. I felt as if I had never laughed so much since Hueco Mundo and it was a nice change for sure. By the time dawn was heralded by the larks, Toshiro and I made our way to his quarters. He helped me make an even bigger blanket cave that locked out the light with a heavy blanket to be used like a tent flap. Toshiro helped me get settled in for some more sleep and said that he'd be doing paperwork with Rangiku in the adjoining office. He kissed me quickly before leaving me in my cave to sleep. I grabbed two pillows to prop up my head and just listened to the sounds of a quill scratching paper in the other room.

I had managed to fall asleep again before Rangiku had arrived for the morning, sounding a bit hung-over and was loud enough that I woke once more. "Where's Imayru?" I heard her ask, sounding a bit irritated from the headache she must have had.

"I helped her make a pillow fort that's similar to a cave in my room, that way she can sleep there and avoid the light," Toshiro told her quietly and I almost couldn't hear him.

"She has to avoid sunlight?"

"Yes. She has a large amount of poison in her body now, enough so that sunlight will actually try to burn its way through to her bones. Captain Unohana said that her life expectancy is now considerably lower."

"But… it can't be!" she shouted incredulously. "She has to stay alive long enough to get the cure, reawaken her Zanpakuto, and finally get married to you!"

"Shh, not so loud!" he shushed her, handing her a stack of papers. "She's probably asleep by now and I don't want her to wake just yet! Here, finish this stack! It should keep that big mouth of yours shut."

They fell silent for a while, their quills scratching in the comfortable silence that had befallen them. I started to get sleepy from just listening to the sounds they made, but couldn't quite slip into the comfort that sleep would allow. I took my large blanket and wrapped it around me, covering my head to leave my face in the shadows and crawled out from the blanket cave. I crawled on my hands and feet to the door that led to Toshiro's office and peeked around the corner. I saw him sitting on the floor in front of the table with a large stack of papers in front of him, Rangiku sitting on the other end of the office on the couch that was facing away from him and was hunched over the coffee table to write. I took that opportunity to flash step to Toshiro, looking like a blur until my head collided into his stomach and forced me to scrunch up in pain. The breath rushed from his lungs as he hunched over and started coughing. I moved to curl up on Toshiro's lap just as Rangiku turned around to see what happened.

"Everything all right over there, Captain?" she asked curiously.

"Never better," he coughed, still trying to force the air back into his lungs as I adjusted the blanket to cover me from head to toe.

"What was that black object that streaked in here? Is that what hit you?"

"It was the cat," he lied quickly. It must have been the first thing he came up with and I wanted to kick him for the feeble fib.

Without needing to look, I knew that Rangiku had one eyebrow raised skeptically before she asked flatly, "Since when do you have a cat? You hate them."

"But I love this cat," he said and I felt him pet my ribs, which earned a cringe as I felt the bones there creak from being broken. To facilitate the lie, I helped him out and began to purr, making him jump and have to stifle the smile that was sure to appear.

"Alright, if you say so," I heard her say, the smile in her voice was apparent. She turned back around to the mountain of paperwork on the coffee table, paused for a second or two, and said, "By the way… hello, Imayru!"

"How did you know it was me?" I asked, peeking just my eyes above the top of the table and making Toshiro sigh, adjusting the blanket on my head to keep me in the shadow it provided.

"Toshiro said the word 'love.' Never once since I have known him has he used that word except for in your case."

"He's said he loved me before?" I asked, eyes lighting up as I sat up further.

"Once, right after you left for the Human World," Toshiro said, rubbing my back slowly. "I'll be honest, I was devastated to find out that you just left us, left me. While I was with Momo and Rangiku, I said that I never got the chance to tell you that I loved you right before I broke down in front of them."

"That was the only time we'd seen that happen to him," Rangiku whispered.

Not knowing what else to do and feeling very sleepy now, I adjusted myself on his lap and lay my head on his left shoulder so he could continue writing with his other arm, resting my forehead against his neck. He wrapped his arm around my waist and went back to work, every so often he would look back to check up on me. I was feeling rather warm and happy, the temperature staying stable as our powers mixed into the air. I finally dozed off in a haze of white noise, listening to the quills scratching the paper and the birds chirping outside.

I woke up again at sunset, startling both Toshiro and Rangiku by running to the office doors to catch the last rays of sun before it set. Rangiku gasped in surprise and Toshiro chased after me, grabbing me by the waist and pulling me away from the dying sunlight just before I stepped out into it. We struggled fiercely as I reached my arm out to stick it into the light to prove a point but Rangiku was shaken from her stupor enough to grab my arms and pull them away.

"Stop it, Imayru!" Toshiro yelled, pulling me even harder and dragging me back into his quarters.

"You don't understand! I can be outside during a sunset and it won't hurt me! I've done it before!" I shouted back at him, kicking so hard that Rangiku had to grab my legs to help him carry me.

"You don't know that anymore! You haven't tried to be out in it since leaving the hospital and I'm not about to let you risk it!"

It didn't take long for the two of them to get me into Toshiro's quarters, Rangiku locking the two of us in until she came back with dinner for us all. I didn't speak a word to Toshiro while Rangiku was gone, just staring at the shadows lengthening on the floor from where I was sitting in one of the shadowy corners. He tried to get me to speak to him but I was too absorbed in my thoughts to pay attention. Maybe he was right about me not being able to go into any kinds of natural sunlight. It didn't give me a good feeling to know this.

I still didn't utter a word once Rangiku returned, just listened to the two of them talk while I ate the food she provided for us. She handed me the golden liquid that Unohana made for me to take in a larger dose in the morning. I waited for the both of them to say their goodnights in Toshiro's office, staring up at the full moon and the stars from the window until he came back. With a hesitant smile, he motioned for me to join him in the blanket cave and I told him that I would in a minute. As he got comfortable, I looked back up at the stars and hoped that the cure for me would be found soon because I would miss seeing the night sky. I climbed inside the mini cave and let Toshiro hold me while he slept. He laid his head on my chest, wrapped his arms and legs around me, and seemed to fall asleep faster than I'd ever seen him do before. I stroked his hair gently, sliding his bangs away from his eyes before running my fingers through his snowy hair. I felt him sigh contentedly and his breathing slowed to a relaxed pace.

After a few hours of lying there peacefully, I had a feeling deep in my gut that something wasn't quite right. Everything in the room was fine, but something outside in the Seireitei didn't feel right and I couldn't pinpoint what it was. Slowly untangling myself from underneath Toshiro's sleeping form so as to not wake him, I quietly left the shadows of the blankets and went to the window. I didn't see anything out of the ordinary at first but the feeling still gnawed at the back of my mind and made me look harder. It was then that I saw the moon looking large as it set behind the Senzaikyu and at the very tip of the white tower was a man, his white robes flapping in the breeze. I felt an eerily familiar spiritual pressure emanating from him, one that I felt was sickly sweet and made me want to cringe. It was powerful enough to send almost anyone to their knees. I felt a jolt of emotion seize me when I finally saw the brown hair and glasses glinting in the moonlight.

"Aizen," I growled softly to myself. When I blinked, he had disappeared but I could still sense his spiritual pressure as clear as day. I grabbed the bag that held my dragon kimono and captain's haori, putting them on silently and grabbing my Zanpakuto to put back in place on my back. I slipped the vial of golden liquid into my belt securely before entering the blanket cave. I kissed Toshiro one more time, watching as he turned in his sleep to face me and reach out to me. I clasped his hand, running my thumb over his knuckles gently before letting go and crawling out of the blanket cave to walk over to the window. I hopped up onto the windowsill, taking one last look as Toshiro's sleeping form before leaping out of the window and flash stepping onto a roof across the courtyard.

* * *

A few hours before dawn, a feeling of dread that I couldn't explain rousing me from sleep as I blearily opened my eyes. Something isn't right, I thought to myself, sitting up and rubbing the sleep from my eyes. I looked around me to try and find Imayru, but she wasn't inside the blanket cave we made together. I crawled out from the blankets to see that it was still dark outside and figured that maybe she was out in my office. Peeking my head out didn't reveal her location to me and I went back into my quarters to look out the window. I saw a stand of cherry blossom trees near the wall surrounding my Squad's Headquarters and jumped out of the window, landing gracefully and running over to the trees. I looked up but didn't see any sign of her, which was making me feel very uneasy.

I ran to Rangiku's quarters and knocked loudly on the door, shifting my weight onto one leg every few seconds before I heard her movement. I barely gave her any time to open the door before I asked her, "Have you seen Imayru?"

Gaping at me as if I had just grown two heads, she sleepily said, "I just woke up before dawn. Do you really think I've seen her?"

"No, you're right. I'm sorry," I told her quietly, beginning to feel an edge of panic tinge my thoughts.

"Toshiro, what's going on?" she asked me calmly.

"I can't find Imayru anywhere and I've got this really bad gut feeling right now."

I ran out into the courtyard again, the only thing I could think to do now was try to sense the remnants of her spiritual pressure and follow its trail straight to her. Rangiku called after me as I ran back into my office and grabbed Hyorinmaru from its stand. I got dressed and put on my haori, about to begin the search for her when I heard noises approach. I turned around to see Rangiku, her Zanpakuto in hand, and Momo right beside her.

"Momo, what are you doing here?" I asked incredulously.

"I was sent by Captain Unohana to check that Imayru was still here," she said, giving me a determined look. "Unohana told me that she sensed a spiritual pressure from one of the traitors and that I needed to come here right now."

"Which traitor?" Rangiku asked.

"It was Aizen's," Momo whispered, a haunted look passing through her eyes.

"Do you think she was taken by him?" Rangiku asked, turning to look at me in fear.

"No, there weren't any signs of a struggle," I told them both, feeling a deep burning rage shake me to my core. "I was in the room with her and would have heard something. I'm now very certain that she left on her own and I think I know why."

"She's going to get revenge on Aizen," Rangiku murmured. "What I don't understand is why."

"Aizen tried to kill Momo and me," I explained to her, my body now sending shivers down my spine in anger and fear for Imayru's safety. "He tried to take away two of the people she cares about and takes it personally. Now she's gone after him to make him pay for what he did."

"So if we find Aizen, we find Imayru as well," Momo said to herself, pacing nervously. "This is going to end very badly. Imayru is in bad condition. She can't even be out in the sunlight!"

I walked over to Momo and grabbed her by the shoulders, making her look me in the eyes and forcing her to calm down. "She used to be the Lost Girl of the 1st District of Rukon. She knows what to do to stay in the shadows."

"You're right," she said to me, a small smile playing on her lips. "We just need to find her before she finds Aizen."

I happened to look up again to see that the sun was starting to lift from the horizon and knew that now would be as good a time as any to catch up to her. I went into my room, Rangiku and Momo following behind me, and I followed her spiritual pressure to the window. I flash stepped to the rooftops on the other side of the courtyard, hearing Rangiku and Momo's feet hitting the shingles behind me. We followed her reiatsu all the way up to the Sokyoku, where it seemed to stop before shifting directions over to the west. It was thinning out, which meant she was speeding along as fast as she possibly could after the reiatsu that belonged to Aizen. She's going to find him at this pace, I thought, feeling dread course through my veins and making my limbs feel heavy. She was going to find him and I wasn't going to be there to protect her. The moment the sun came up, I knew that she would have to stop for sleep. She always seemed like she was at a disadvantage during the day and at her strongest the moment night fell.

"She's going to stop until sundown!" Rangiku yelled to me, making me turn my head to look at her. "I noticed that the potion I delivered from Unohana was gone!"

I yelled triumphantly, knowing that we now had a chance to catch up with her. It wasn't until we reached the outskirts to the forest outside of the 1st Rukon District and her spiritual pressure disappeared with a kido spell that I knew she was going to keep on running and if she needed to sleep it off, we weren't going to find her. She knew every nook and cranny in there and we weren't going to find her if she didn't want to be found. I skidded to a halt and wailed in agony, Rangiku and Momo surrounding me and looking as confounded about what to do as I was.

* * *

I was standing on a large branch, about to take the golden liquid in the vial, when I heard Toshiro's yells. A shiver travelled down my spine while a small part of me wanted nothing more than to rush to his side, even though I knew for a fact that I couldn't. To go back to him would mean that Aizen would get away and find some other way to try and hurt the ones I cared about. With a determined growl, I tipped my head back and downed the contents of the vial, feeling it burn all the way down to my stomach before flaring into my veins. I flash stepped onto another branch, then another, staying above the ground and moving faster than I had ever before. This was the first time that I actually felt like I was flying.

I soon felt the liquid sending bolts of pain through every part of my body as I pushed myself even harder. I couldn't allow my body to falter while I was tracking down Aizen's trail of reiatsu. He had a head start and I was bound and determined to catch him. My muscles began to stiffen as my limbs felt like they were made of lead, so I exerted more energy regardless of the fact that I was beginning to see spots in my vision.

_Fight_, I began to hear in my head, so I kept running. When I stumbled, I heard the word again, only even louder than before. I finally felt all of my muscles lock up as the feeling of being attached to a livewire hit me and I crashed to the ground in a heap.

"No!" I shrieked as I crashed through thick branches on the way down to the ground. My head hit a rock when I landed and the black spots almost completely covered my vision. I didn't know what else to do when I spied a small copse of trees, so I clawed my way to it while the muscles in my legs locked up again. I held back another scream of pain as I kept moving my way slowly to cover. Once I made it inside and wasn't visible to any outsides, I let myself pass out.

* * *

"What are we going to do now?" Momo asked us, hoping at least one of us would have the answer for her.

"If she doesn't want to be found, we're never going to find her," Rangiku said, looking worried. "I don't know if she told the two of you, but she trained under Yoruichi for a year in her spare time to be a part of the Stealth Squad."

"This changes nothing," I said, recovering my senses and turning back to the both of them. "She might be fast, but she's not well. That means the odds are even and we still have a chance."

"But how are we going to be able to find her if she's using a kido spell to conceal her reiatsu from us?" Momo whimpered and I could see her eyes fill with tears.

"We can still follow Aizen's reiatsu," I told them. "Remember, if we find Aizen, we'll find Imayru as well."

That was what was needed to get their morale back up and we all took off running, flash stepping every so often to conserve our strength. It was about an hour of following the trail when I thought I heard a faint scream far ahead of us. I stopped a few feet away to listen for a second or two to see if I could hear the noise once more. When nothing sounded, I motioned for Rangiku and Momo to follow as I took off running again, listening for anything that could alert me to Imayru's presence while feeling the dread tearing through me.

We had been running for so long, we almost didn't notice that sunset was indeed approaching. I forced the other two to run faster to keep up with me because I knew Imayru would be up and running soon the closer it got to nighttime. We almost missed the large branches that had fallen from one of the trees, some of which were still dangling from the tree itself. There was a rock near the base of the tree that had a few streaks of blood that pointed to a deep furrow in the ground. I signaled to Rangiku and Momo to stay silent as we tiptoed to the copse of trees where the furrow ended. Sneaking up on it, I pushed the trees apart quickly only to find that she wasn't there anymore. There was a patch of grass that was obviously flattened from someone sleeping there and a tiny pool of blood.

"She hasn't been gone long," I pointed out. "She could only have a ten minute lead."

"Captain, what's on the other side of this forest?" Rangiku asked, staring off in the direction of where Aizen's reiatsu led.

"A large mountain that's said to be an inactive volcano, but that's a weeklong trip to get there."

"It takes so long because there are places in this forest that are impossible to get through because the trees grow too close together," Momo told her and I could see how dismayed they were beginning to feel. "It takes a person who is familiar with the terrain to know which ways to go."

"I think we should get some rest for now before going on further," I told them.

They lay down on the ground to get comfortable and all managed to sleep within minutes. I stayed awake to think about what I would do long enough to begin to drift asleep myself. It wasn't long before I found myself within a cave, ice completely covering the entire area while a mist floated in front of me. I heard a deep growl as the mist thinned and felt how familiar it was, knowing instantly that Hyorinmaru had come to me in yet another dream. Imayru was the only one who knew about them, going so far as to comfort me whenever I woke up from one of these dreams. The dragon stepped forth and brought its head down to my level.

_What is it that you hope to gain from following someone who doesn't want to be found?_ Hyorinmaru asked me, his scarlet eyes watching my every move.

"I'm afraid that she might get herself killed by chasing after Aizen," I explained to the great dragon. "I can't let anything bad happen to her or it will break me."

_I understand. How much do you desire to get to her before the traitor reaches her?_

"Wait, I thought he was running off to his lair. He's trying to catch Imayru?"

_He is using his Bankai to have his double lead a trail of his reiatsu to a secluded area while he awaits her arrival to trap her. He has something sinister in store for her and her dragon._

"What's his plan?" I asked, feeling the dread from before rise up and threaten to drown me.

_That I do not know. What I have surmised is that it could be a grave threat to the Soul Society if we allow it to happen._

"Will you help me get to her faster?"

The dragon nodded graciously. _If that is what you desire._

I felt him apply his powers to my mind, laying down a map that would show me how to find Imayru. If I didn't reach her before she got to the foothills of the mountain, Aizen would have her for sure. I thanked Hyorinmaru and I heard his growl of encouragement rumble from his throat before the mist shrouded my view of him. I woke up suddenly and sat up, breathing heavily and deciding right then to leave to find Imayru. I grabbed a stick and drew the map in the dirt for Rangiku and Momo to find, leaving a note etched into the dirt telling them why I had to leave them behind. I jumped up and flash stepped into the branches of the trees, racing against time to find Imayru before my worst enemy did.

* * *

My head was pounding profusely as I kept launching myself through the air, remembering from my past which paths to take from within the tree branches to slip in between the tight spots. I wouldn't lose my prey as I followed the reiatsu trail, making perfect time as I continued to use Shunpo. I could now see the mountain rise up from the forest, its snowy peak like a beacon in the moonlight as I followed it to its foothills. I was so close to finding Aizen that I could taste it, gaining on him faster than he could run from me. I felt my body shake from the exertion and the adrenaline rush I was experiencing, my pupils dilating and a grin of triumph playing along my lips.

The trees were beginning to thin and I put on an extra spurt of speed, flash stepping to the outskirts of the forest and holding onto the trunk of the tree to examine Aizen's reiatsu trail. I didn't see him standing there out in the open, so I knew that I needed to be cautious. I took out my Zanpakuto and flash stepped out to the foothills. I felt a spiritual pressure smash into me, trying to send me to the ground but I wouldn't let it. I used my own spiritual pressure to push back at him and even the odds, hearing an evil chuckle as I turned around to face the person I was hunting so persistently.

"Aizen," I growled, glaring at him with a fire in my eyes that seemed to amuse him.

"Hello, Imayru. It's so nice to see you again," he said, feigning sincerity.

"Cut the crap, Aizen. Why did you appear in the Seireitei?"

"I came back to visit," he said simply, giving me a sickly sweet smile that mirrored his reiatsu.

"Visit who?"

"You, my dear." I gave him a startled look before I could stop it and he continued on. "I hadn't seen you since Hueco Mundo when I got the Hollow to torture you."

"Wait…" I said, feeling a rage I didn't know I possessed well up within me. "You were the one behind me getting pulled into Hueco Mundo by the Hollows? You were the reason why I was poisoned?"

"You didn't think it was just a coincidence, did you?" he asked, his smiled getting more and more sinister.

"What did you do to me?" I asked quietly, feeling the rage make my voice shake as my body did as well.

"I created a serum that I gave to an older Hollow, who dragged you into their realm and injected you with all of it. I was supposed to monitor you after you came back, but you left for the Human World before I could stop you. The only thing I could do was cause some anarchy within the Soul Society, attempt to kill your little friends, and then wait. You played right into my hands."

"I don't understand why you felt the need to poison me!" I shouted, feeling my skin burn the angrier I got.

"Technically, I didn't poison you. Yes, you are dying, but only your mind. The serum I created is to force the spirit of one's Zanpakuto into the body of the Soul Reaper, killing the Soul Reaper's mind and leaving the Zanpakuto spirit free to shift into a true manifestation. I want to harvest the spirit of Tatsuya and make it my slave to bring down the Soul Society."

At first, I didn't believe a word that he said, preferring to think that he was wrong than the alternative. I felt a growl escape from my throat, almost not catching the gleeful glint in Aizen's eyes as I put my head in my hands. I wanted nothing more than to scream out my frustrations but I couldn't let Aizen have the satisfaction of knowing how badly this bothered me. I swung my sword at his neck with a shriek, narrowly missing his throat as he took a surprised step backwards.

"You're lying!" I screamed, my skin twitching painfully as I chased after him to swing my sword at him again. He dodged my strike effortlessly as he drew his sword as well.

"I wouldn't lie about something like this!" he shouted, victory ringing in his voice as he blocked another strike of mine. "But if you want to fight, I will let you take out your anger on me before I force you unconscious. You need more doses of the serum before you can transform!"

"I'll never let you do that!" I screeched, feeling a tinge of fear in my thoughts as my rage spiraled out of control.

I smacked his blade out of the way and tried to ram my blade through to his spine when he parried my strike, flash stepping towards me too fast for me to stop and slicing into my shoulder. I cried out in pain as attempted to thrust my Zanpakuto through his throat, only to have the other shoulder slashed. Sheer force of will kept me on my feet and my blade in my hand, feeling the blood drip down my chest only had me seeing red as I launched myself at Aizen. I had him onto his back, about to stab my blade into his blackened heart when I saw his hand move faster than I could see and stabbing a needle into my neck. I whimpered as he pressed the plunger of the syringe down, a large dose of sedative traveling through my bloodstream as I managed to get to my feet somehow. I staggered away from Aizen with my Zanpakuto in hand, feeling how heavy it got along with my limbs while my vision darkened. Another whimper had my previous headache pounding as I continued along, staring up at the mountain before screaming in fury and falling to the ground. Aizen came closer to pick up Tatsuya from the ground at my side and to throw me over his shoulder before I fell unconscious, no matter how much I struggled to stay awake and get free.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

"No, it can't be," I said aloud to myself, looking out from the outskirts of the forest and onto the foothills of the long dead volcano.

There were deep gouges in the ground from the slashes of Zanpakuto's long gone and even a large pool of blood from some person's defeat before it seemed like they were taken away. Some optimistic part of me hoped that this was a fight between Imayru and Aizen, one that she won handily, but the trepidation I was feeling deep in my heart told me that things went terribly wrong. Just from following the reiatsu from Aizen, I could see the whole thing playing out in my mind even though it hurt to have to watch.

He must have said things to enrage her for she launched herself at him, blade sweeping out for his neck. He kept dodging her, taunting her some more before unsheathing his own blade and going after her. While her fury blinded her, he slashed both shoulders in an attempt to make her drop her Zanpakuto, but she stubbornly held on just before she tackled him to the ground and raised her sword up to stab him through the heart. Aizen knew that she was vulnerable at that very moment and stuck her with a sedative, which made her stagger away from him before fainting. Aizen then picked up her prone form and carried her off.

I remembered hearing her bloodcurdling scream, feeling the blood drain from my face and nearly stopping me in my tracks as I felt myself panic. I had hoped that maybe she would be ok, but just judging from this scene I knew she was in serious danger. I felt my own anger course through my veins as I thought about what she must have gone through and nearly howled in rage. I launched myself down to the foothills, drawing Hyorinmaru from its sheath as I followed Aizen's reiatsu. It led around the other side of the mountain and I began running off in its direction.

_Halt._

I skidded to a stop and felt a swirling cold presence within my mind, calling me to reason. It felt like the ancient freeze of a glacier and I knew that Hyorinmaru was ready to speak to me again for guidance.

_Did you forget so quickly that Aizen's Bankai allows for him to have a double run around with his reiastu?_ the icy dragon asked. _He's leading you off of his trail so that he'll have more time to prepare the girl for his evil plan._

Before I could ask him what I should do, I looked back on the scene before me. I saw the pool of blood again and the large trail of blood droplets heading up towards the mountain itself. Hyorinmaru practically purred in elation as I walked back and followed the blood drops, feeling mystified as to why Aizen left such an obvious clue and relieved that I now had a way to find her. I ran along beside the trail, always keeping it within sight so that I wouldn't lose my one hope to finding Imayru. After reaching a rocky patch of ground with a small stand of trees, the blood droplets thinned out before disappearing, which led me to believe that he must have jumped up onto the only exposed tree branch halfway up the tree itself. I launched myself up there; my suspicions confirmed when I saw a few more drops of blood. The only place left that he could have gone was up the side of the mountain. I looked over to see the thin trail of droplets on a particularly steep edge of the mountain. I knew that he had to know the area well to find all the best footholds to be able to flash step up the mountain itself, but all I could do was climb or risk falling to my death. Even though I wanted nothing more than to use my Bankai to fly up the mountain to her, I knew that it would be too fast to track such a tiny trail and taking things slow and steady would help me find her faster. I jumped and grabbed a handhold in the mountainside, slowly making my way upwards and following the blood along.

"I'm coming for you, Imayru," I gritted out, wedging my hands and feet into tiny niches to pull myself up further. "Just hang on and don't give up just yet!"

* * *

My body was beginning to shut down. No, wait, Aizen said that it wasn't my body, but my mind forcing a physical reaction to losing its own spirit. I had a difficult time opening my eyes, anxiety almost crippling me for what I might see. My vision was a blur as my organs felt like they were beginning to fail, regardless of the monitors beside me beeping and showing signs that I was perfectly healthy. I felt a shudder go through me when my vision cleared just enough for me to see my surroundings.

I was in an all-white room, one that was so immaculately clean that it hurt my eyes from its brightness. I was lying sprawled out on a metal table, restraints keeping every part of me pinned down so that I couldn't move an inch no matter how hard I tried. I looked downwards to see that my dragon kimono and captain's haori were gone and replaced with thick bandages around my chest and hips to protect my modesty. As I looked up, I could see the monitor that was showing my vitals and a bag of opaque, black liquid that was hanging from a hook, a tube that I followed with my eyes that led down to an IV that was inserted into my right arm. I hissed and tried to squirm, a slight fear of needles fueling my movements and I heard a peal of laughter from the corner of the room.

"A fear of needles, eh? How common," I heard Aizen say as he moved into my peripheral vision.

"You won't think it's so common when I tear your throat out with my teeth and rip your spine out!" I snarled at him, baring my teeth to show I was serious about my threat.

"Now, now, hostility is quite the unattractive quality in a woman," Aizen clucked. "I think you should be careful to throw such hurtful words about or I'll have to punish you."

He pulled out a remote control from inside his kimono, hitting one of the buttons in the middle and holding it as it made a beep. Instantly, I felt the restraint over my abdomen tighten and squeeze my organs together. I hissed out a breath, unable to take another one while my diaphragm was pressed down. I wheezed in an attempt to shriek as I thrashed my head from side to side, Aizen laughing evilly until I almost passed out before he finally let go of the button. I felt the restraint loosen back into its original form as I coughed, my lungs burning and my eyes tearing up. I glared up at Aizen hatefully, imagining his murder at my hands once I was free.

"Are we going to be civilized?" he asked, moving closer to the metal slab I was on so I could see him better. I didn't answer his question, just growled up at him and glared daggers. He sighed as he realized how stubborn a person I was and said, "Is it necessary to be so stubborn?"

"Was it necessary to disrobe me?" I shot back at him, nodding in the direction of the thick bandages.

"You aren't going to need your clothes anyway when Tatsuya takes over. Your clothes will end up ripping, so I put them in a chair by the corner to be stored later. Don't get the wrong idea, Imayru. I've seen Momo's body and I prefer that to anyone else's."

He was leaving the room as I screeched in rage, hoping he'd know my wrath as I fought hard against the restraints. I pulled against them as hard as I could, feeling the material bite into my skin and still continuing to struggle when I felt blood drip. I heard Aizen gasp quietly as one of the bands around my shoulders snapped loudly, making me scream in pain as it cut me but the haze of bloodlust had me moving even more. Aizen hit another button and all the restraints tightened faster than I could blink, slamming me back down onto the metal slab.

Another button was pressed as Aizen left the room completely, a panel in the ceiling opening to reveal a rod with a metallic ball at the end of it. I pulled even harder at the bands as my muscles began to rip from the bones at the force I was putting them through as a buzzing noise came from the rod. With a jolt, a large bolt of electricity crashed down on my body, making me cry out in agony as my joints locked together and I felt my body spasm violently. My bones were aching and when I thought I couldn't take it any longer, the electricity stopped its flow and the rod rose back into the panel, sliding back into place. I panted heavily, tears of pain slipping past my lashes as I turned my head to the side to lean it against the cool metal. I saw a chair in front of a wall that had five empty bags from the serum and I felt anxiety bite at the edges of my mind when I saw that there was one more bag left. I looked upwards to see that the bag that was currently sending the serum into my veins was half empty. I felt so tired as I felt my heart rate drop, even though the monitor was beeping normally, and I began to drift into unconsciousness once more with thoughts of Toshiro flashed through my mind.

* * *

All I could think about was what Aizen could be doing to her right now when I felt an intense spike in her spiritual pressure, making the mountain itself shake as rocks shifted. Not knowing what else to do, I had to flash step to the side to avoid a boulder from crushing my head and taking my body back down the mountainside with it. Once I felt the pressure drop back down to manageable levels, I flash stepped back to where I was, only to become distressed when I saw that everything had shifted to hide Imayru's blood trail from me. I was now out of options and out of time as her spiritual pressure spiked once more, forcing me against the mountainside as sweat ran down my face from holding onto the hand and footholds I had. Once the spiritual pressure dropped again, I knew that the time was now to move into action.

I grabbed hold of the mountainside tightly with one hand, drew Hyorinmaru from its sheath, and yelled, "Bankai!"

Clouds formed above the mountaintop as snow began to fall, a whipping wind crashing into the rock face and causing more boulders to tumble down. Ice formed in the stone where I was hanging onto the mountain and crawled up my arm, forming talons on one hand and spreading outwards. An ice dragon's head formed on the hand that held my Zanpakuto, also wings and a tail of ice ripping through my clothes and catching the wind to make me airborne. I flew upwards as Imayru's spiritual pressure skyrocketed again and I was finally able to lock onto its precise location, fighting my way upwards as the mountain rumbled even more. I saw snow from the tip of the mountain begin sliding down and I was forced to wait for it to stop before I could find her. The spikes of reiatsu were picking up speed and I knew I needed to get to her now, the dread I was feeling was getting worse.

I found the exact spot where she was located but it was blocked by a heavy door that blended into the mountainside, so I called upon the powers of Hyorinmaru and launched a massive chunk of ice with one sweep of my Zanpakuto. The door exploded and the stone it was made of scattered, pieces of it raining down the side of the mountain as I dove inside. I folded my wings against my spine and saw with shock that this was the inside of a secret laboratory. Everything was covered with artificial light that made the surrounding area seem sinister. I walked down the hallway that had doors on either side that were a few feet apart. I felt an intense spike of reiatsu that sent me to my knees and I panted heavily, forcing my own spiritual pressure outwards just to counteract the constricting feeling. Once it let up, I ran down the hallway after her, turning corners as needed and remembering each turn I needed to take for the way back.

When I made it to the middle of the mountain, I heard a shriek of agony as the reiatsu spiked even higher than ever, sending me straight to the ground and choking me as the air seemed to burn from a sudden temperature increase. Pushing my reiatsu outwards again, I slowly rose to my feet and hobbled over to the room that Imayru was in, not bothering with opening it but instead slashing through it with my Zanpakuto. The pieces flew into the room at opposite ends as I ran inside, horrified at what I saw as the reiatsu lowered.

Imayru was strapped down tightly to a metallic table, her dragon kimono and haori lying on the ground beside the table and just wearing thick bandages over her chest and hips. Her eyes were closed in anguish and she panted heavily from the straps that were restricting her breathing. Her hair had lost the dragon horns and was splayed out around her, the midnight blue strands shining from the lights in the room. A buzzing noise was starting up as her body flinched, preparing for whatever was about to come and I knew it wouldn't be good. Barely even registering in my mind, I launched myself on top of her and covered her body with my own as a large bolt of electricity crashed down on me. My breath hissed from my mouth as my body shuddered, making Imayru now roar in rage as she felt my spiritual pressure and smothered it with her own. I collapsed and concentrated on trying to breathe as the electricity stopped and her reiatsu lowered again, squirming under me to get free from the restraints. I got onto my knees and slashed them open just before I was grabbed by the collar and thrown into the wall out in the hallway.

I grunted and looked up to see Aizen standing before me, feeling fear slide down my spine slowly. It was like all of my nightmares began to replay all over again, watching as he almost killed Momo and stabbed me through with his Zanpakuto. Aizen laughed evilly as he looked at me slumped on the floor below him, his blade in his hand and unsheathed as he moved to hold it against my throat.

"It's been a long time, Hitsugaya," Aizen purred, his glasses flashing in the light as he stared down at me.

"Not long enough," I growled, glaring daggers at him. I wanted nothing more than to kill him with my bare hands for what he just put Imayru through.

"Oh, is that really how you treat a fellow Captain of the 13 Court Squads?" he asked, looking aggravated at my hostility towards him.

"You're a traitor," I spat, about to make my move towards him but he pressed his blade closer to my throat and I felt a trickle of blood. "You are no longer Captain of Squad 5. Imayru has taken your place."

"So I've heard through the grapevine. However, I'll soon have my place back when Imayru dies."

"I'm not dead yet," I heard Imayru growl, appearing suddenly behind Aizen's back.

I never even saw her move, just felt the heat flying off of shadowy wings of flame that appeared and the blood spray onto my face before a tail of dark fire darkened my vision for a second or two. I heard a fretful gurgle as I looked up to see that Imayru had sunk what looked to be fangs deep into Aizen's jugular, the blood pouring down his neck and her chin as his eyes looked panicked. I saw her fiery talons that weren't holding Tatsuya grip the back of Aizen's neck, a sickening sizzle as they sank all the way to the bone like a hot knife through butter. She grabbed hold of his spine before yanking it completely out of his back, at the same time biting through his trachea and ripping out his throat. The blood bubbled from his throat as he attempted to breathe, the light in his eyes slowly going out as Imayru dropped him to the ground before throwing his spine down the opposite end of the hallway. I heard her spit out what was left of his throat and silence fell between us.

I looked up at her just as she crouched down in front of me and for the first time I saw her eyes. I gasped in surprise as I saw that her irises were crimson once more, the pupils completely gone as she stared at me with blood dripping from her mouth and down to her neck. The fiery talons dissipated while her ethereal wings spread out behind her and she wiped the blood from my face, a blank expression on hers as she attempted to clean up the droplets. Although I was frozen in shock, not once did I feel afraid of her and the condition she was in.

"Imayru," I whispered, snapping out of it and catching her gaze by gently grabbing her chin to make her look me in the eyes.

I watched as her nostrils flared slightly with whatever scent she caught, her eyes sliding shut for a second or two before she slowly pulled her chin from my grasp. She straddled my lap to get closer and I felt her nuzzle my neck, smelling my scent and trailing her lips against my skin.

"Imayru," I said again, a shiver rolling down my spine as I tangled my fingers into her silky hair. I felt her tongue lapping up my blood from the cut that Aizen's Zanpakuto caused and I wasn't certain what to do next.

"T-Toshiro…" I heard her whisper brokenly before she slumped against my body in a dead faint, her wings and tail disintegrating into the air as her warm breath fanned out onto my neck.

Spreading my ice sculpted wings and wrapping my arm around her waist, I managed to get to my feet with her. I knew that the only way we were going to get out of this laboratory would be if we flew out and back to the Seireitei, but it was going to be difficult to do. Dragging Imayru along, I went back into the room where I'd found her and collected her clothing, folding it up and placing it inside my uniform. I grabbed her Zanpakuto and tied it into the sash I had around my back. I slipped out the chain that Imayru used to keep her sword on her back and chained her to me securely, her arms wrapping around my neck as she nuzzled my chest. I used a few kido spells to keep her in place as we're flying and spread my wings as far as I could within the halls. Thankfully, the walls were wide enough for me to fly and I took off as fast as I could, knowing that I needed to get her back to the Seireitei as fast as I could.

When I flew outside the mountain, I sighed in relief as I saw the moon rising over the horizon and I held onto Imayru tighter as I put on another burst of speed. I could see the lights of the Seireitei from this high in the air but it was going to be a long flight. It was made enjoyable by the little noises I heard Imayru make over the sound of the rushing wind. I kept hearing her say my name and nuzzle the hollow of my throat in her sleep, making me moan softly and my eyes to droop to half-mast. She never moved too much to hinder our flight back and I would periodically kiss the top of her head, hearing her sigh and I smiled.

I was deeply grateful that she didn't have a nightmare once while we flew and the Seireitei was almost beneath us. I started to descend slowly, trying to pinpoint the exact location of the hospital at Squad 4 and having a difficult time of it. It was a stroke of luck that led me to see it. Still within the confines of her sleep, Imayru leaned up and sank her fangs, which hadn't retracted yet, into my neck and proceeded to take a couple gulps of my blood. I inhaled sharply, my wings faltering in my astonished state and we dived down a few feet before I caught myself, finally catching sight of the hospital as she pulled her mouth away and slumped backwards limply. As I landed in front of the entryway to the hospital, I called out to a few subordinates of Unohana that were guarding the hospital to go fetch their Captain for me as I unchained Imayru from me, muttering the incantations to get rid of the kido spells attached to her and catching her with one arm before she hit the ground. I sheathed Hyorinmaru and my Bankai dispersed, leaving a cold chill in the air before it warmed back up to its normal temperature.

Captain Unohana arrived outside just as I had lifted Imayru into my arms with ease, her skin feeling soft beneath my palms. She rushed over to check her, seeing the deep cuts on her shoulders and the blood covering her body before gesturing for me to follow her. We ran inside where she led me down a bunch of hallways that twisted and turned so much that I got lost, what I knew was that we were going down different hallways that I didn't recognize. Once we reached the room she wanted to go to, I lay Imayru down on the bed and was immediately shooed out to the next room.

"Unohana, wait!" I yelled, making her run back into the room as Hanataro came in to check on me. "Be careful with her. I don't know what happened, but she's a… bit of a biter recently."

With an amused shake of her head, she walked into the other room to take care of Imayru. Hanataro came over and examined me, healing the cut from Aizen's Zanpakuto with a healing spell and then catching sight of the bite marks on the other side of my neck. He gasped, giving me a shocked look.

"Captain Hitsugaya, what happened here?"

"She bit me," I said simply, trying to figure out in my head what was going on with her.

"That's kind of crazy for her to do," he said to himself.

I gave him a stern look and saw him flinch as I said so quietly it scared him, "That is Imayru you're speaking of and she is also a Captain. I suggest that you take care to not say anything else bad about her in my presence."

"I-I'm so s-sorry, Captain Hitsugaya!" Hanataro said, bowing quickly and looking skittish. "I never meant any disrespect."

I allowed him to quickly bandage the bite and I got up to leave, patting him on the shoulder before walking to Imayru's room. I was about to knock on the door when it was flung open and I was tackled into the opposite wall, looking down to see Imayru hugging me so tightly that I could barely breathe. She loosened her grip and stood on her toes to nuzzle my neck, I even felt her fangs scrape against my skin and I had to suppress my shiver as I gently put her at an arm's length. Those crimson eyes of hers narrowed suspiciously, but she calmed once I wrapped an arm around her shoulder just as Unohana came outside of her room.

"I think it's just you that she likes to bite," she told me, giving me an amuse smile as she led us down the hallways and to the familiar set of stairs. "However, there is something important I have to tell you once we get her settled." The walk up the stairs didn't seem to take long and the moment we reached the top floor, Imayru ran past me and looked around as if she had never seen it before.

"What did you have to tell me, Captain Unohana?" I asked, feeling worry deep in the pit of my gut.

"Well, the thing is… Imayru isn't the one in control of her body," Unohana said as I watched Imayru jumped up onto the top of the bookshelf and then onto a large wooden support beam near the ceiling, kicking her feet gently as she observed us. "It seems like Tatsuya's and Imayru's spirits have fused to form this new entity that seems to either like the taste of blood or needs it to survive. If only I knew what Aizen gave her and we could do research on it to find its cure."

"I would offer to go get it for you but I have a feeling that she would just chase after me and endanger herself in the sunlight."

"No, I think this new entity is too animalistic to let itself be hurt by something like that. Its instincts would tell it to stay away from any natural light and stick to the shadows."

"What concerns me most is that he was giving her more of that poison and she seems to be perfectly fine," I said, looking up at Imayru and she gave me a smile that definitely didn't belong. "She should be on her deathbed right now. Not that I want that to ever happen, but it just all seems suspicious. Not only that, but it was like he let her catch him off guard so that she could kill him the way she did."

"How _did_ she kill him?" Unohana asked curiously.

"By tearing out his throat with her teeth and then ripping his spine out."

"I wish I could say that it sounds more like something that Tatsuya would do rather than Imayru, but she hated Aizen with a fiery passion ever since she found out what he did to the both of you. She wanted to get her revenge."

"No, this was different," I said quietly to myself, thinking back to being in the secret laboratory in the mountain. "I had never seen hatred that looked like that before. She almost looked devastated, if I had to use a word to describe it. It was like he did something to her that was so horrendous, she didn't want to live to see another day. She abhorred the very thought of carrying on, even when she finally saw me. When I saw the change in her was right before she attacked him and killed him."

"What we really need to do is get Imayru back so that she can personally tell us what happened to her during her kidnapping," Unohana said before walking back to the stairs. As if she had a sudden thought, she turned around and said, "You try to convince this entity to let her back out and I'll go get some dinner for the both of you. It looks like it's going to be a long night for you two." She headed back down the stairs as if nothing had happened and I knew for a fact that it was going to be quite some time before the food was brought up. She probably thought that I was going to have to let Imayru's body bite me again before I could talk to the real version of her.

"Imayru," I called up to her, watching as she looked down at me sharply and mewled at me. She acted as if she loved to hear the sound of my voice as her eyes slid shut. "Imayru, I need you to come back down here so that I can talk to you."

I saw her ethereal wings rip from her back as the flames started back up, her tail growing outwards the way a snake moved in the grass. She jumped down with her wings spread, grabbing me by the back of my collar on my captain's haori and slamming me backwards onto the bed in the shadows. She landed so that she was lying on my chest and grabbed my wrists to pin them to the pillows just above my head. I immediately guessed what she was up to when I felt her tongue trailing up the column of my throat and had to stifle yet another shiver.

"No biting, Imayru," I told her sternly, hearing a soft whine leave her lips as she kissed my jaw. "I told you, I need to talk to you."

Ignoring me completely now, she gently bit down just under my jaw, careful to avoid any major veins as she took a sip from me. I felt my body flinch from the initial bite, but I stayed still as she drank her fill and paid no heed to the pain that was now a dull ache from her fangs piercing my skin. I knew that the moment the real Imayru surfaced, she was going to be filled with anger and self-loathing at what she did to me and was about to stop her when she pulled her fangs free, laying her head on my chest and instantly fell asleep. I could tell that it was now dawn and I began to drift off to sleep with her from being so exhausted from all the strenuous activities of that day.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

When I woke up at sunset, I'd never felt more comfortable and warm than I did right at that moment. I opened my eyes to see Toshiro was in a deep sleep, his arms wrapped around me and his fingers pressing into my bare skin lightly. It was when I happened to notice how pale he looked and the dark bags under his eyes that everything flooded back to me. I remembered the fight with Aizen, cleaning the blood off of Toshiro, then coming back here and biting him to drink his blood. Never before have I ever hated myself as much as I did then and wanted nothing more than to dash off into the corner of the room and cower there, except I couldn't move a single muscle at all. It took me a little while to notice that I was placed in a veil in the back of my conscience and something was moving my body around of its own accord. I screamed in my mind and slashed at the veil with my own sheer force of will, breaking free before the other entity could stop me and I heard my body wail in anguish as it jumped off of Toshiro and into the middle of the room.

He woke up instantly, dazed and confused, but looked at me as I clutched my head in my hands and fought for dear life to control my body. I saw shadowy flames erupt from my body as my spiritual pressure skyrocketed thanks to the other spirit in my head, causing all the windows in this building to explode except for the ones on this floor and Toshiro crashed into the ground. He looked pained as sweat beaded on his forehead and he panted, making me angry enough to push even harder with strong willpower. I first saw little sparks of light leap off of my skin and mingle with the shadowy fire before they turned into flames of light that mixed into the dark fire, my spiritual pressure intensifying even greater as I saw Toshiro struggling to even breathe regularly. The other entity backed off in exhaustion as I cried out in elation, once more in control of my body as I let all the reiatsu I had amassed flow back into the air.

I looked at Toshiro to see him trying to calm his breathing, his eyes closed and the bags under his eyes looking even more prominent when he got even paler from my fight from within. I don't know when it happened exactly, but I felt tears slide down my cheeks and drop down onto the floor in front of him. He must have heard them for he looked up at me with a small smile playing on his features.

"Welcome back, Imayru," he said in between heavy breaths.

The tears fell even harder when I saw the new bite mark on his neck and I let out a sob, my whole body shaking as I covered my mouth with my hand. Before the thought had even finished being processed in my mind, I took off running as fast as I could, grabbing my captain's haori and throwing it on before jumping down five flights of stairs. I heard Toshiro call out to me before I could hear him chase after me, but all I really wanted right now was to be alone to reconcile with what I had done. I could feel him slowly catching up, so I slammed him with my spiritual pressure. I heard a crash as his body hit the floor hard; his panting was loud in my ears as I flash stepped away, only to hear him try to get up by releasing his own reiatsu to counteract mine. None of that made any difference as I had reached the exit and flash stepped up onto a roof on one side of the Squad 4 courtyard before running off. I didn't have a clue as to where I was going, all I knew is that I needed silence and isolation for now before I could let myself be around Toshiro again.

I was running aimlessly when a picture of the cherry blossom tree appeared in the forefront of my mind and I knew it would be the perfect place for me to hide for now. That large tree was in the middle of the Seireitei, so I would be hiding in plain sight and no one would think to look there for me. Even though it was dark outside, there were quite a few people out for the nightshift, walking around and checking the occasional nook or cranny for anything suspicious. In the secluded area that was almost hidden away from sight was the cherry blossom tree, one that had seen many a party underneath its branches. Luckily for me, tonight wasn't a night for drunken antics as I flash stepped onto a branch higher up in the tree that was sturdy enough to hold my weight and kept me from view with all the cherry blossoms.

I began to shake uncontrollably as another sob escaped my lips, my tears falling steadily as I thought back to all the things I had done. I had definitely made good on my threat to Aizen, doing exactly what I had said I would do to him. I didn't know I had the strength to tear out his spine and that frightened me. But what I did to Toshiro seemed much worse to me. I had bitten him and drank his blood, stories of blood drinking creatures were only spread to children and the students training to be Soul Reapers at the academy to scare them about being in the Human World. Even I had to bear witness to the stories of what humans called vampires, how they turned into bats, drank copious amounts of blood, and could even turn you so you could be one part of the many legions of the undead. I shuddered, imagining the stories and rumors that could be told about me now to put fear in the hearts of apprentices that wanted to join Squad 5.

"Be careful picking Squad 5," I could just hear one of the instructors say. "The previous Captain was a traitor to the Soul Society and the current one is a blood drinker."

Another sob wracked my body as the tears rushed down my face and I felt so sorry about what I had done. I covered my eyes with my hands and cried, filled with remorse and self-hatred as the tears refused to stop. It wasn't until I felt a hand touch my shoulder that I snapped out of it, jumping in shock before whipping around to see who had caught me. Of course, it was Toshiro that had found me again, giving me such a depressed look at having found me crying so hard.

"You're blaming yourself for something that happened to you against your will," he said as if he could read my mind, brushing the tears away with his fingertips. "If you're going to blame someone, blame Aizen for what he did to you."

"But I attacked you…" I whispered, looking down as remorse filled me again.

"I didn't see it as one. You weren't in control right then."

"That doesn't matter to me. It shouldn't have happened and I should have been able to stop it."

With a sigh, he quickly slid his arms underneath me and picked me up, earning a squeak of protest before he flash stepped out of the tree. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on as he ran towards the Sokyoku. I watched as buildings flew by and we reached the tall hill in record time. He set me down gently and we both dangled our feet off the edge to stare up at the night sky. For the longest time, we just stared up at the stars in silence, but after a while I could tell that he had some questions for me by the way he stayed as still as the white tower off to our right. I sighed and told him to get on with it, not able to bear the curiosity any longer.

"I just wanted to know what Aizen told you that has made you act so… different," he said, finally able to look me in the eyes.

"The short version is that he said that I'm both dying and not dying at the same time by his hand," I said, only able to glance at his turquoise eyes for a few seconds before turning back to the stars that shone down on us so brilliantly.

He didn't say anything in response at first, just waited for me to say something else that would help him understand. Finally, he said, "I am quite intelligent for being so young a Captain, but I think I'm going to need an explanation to fully understand what you just said."

"Aizen is behind everything," I said quietly, feeling a slight edge of rage tinge my thoughts. "He was the reason I ended up in Hueco Mundo to be tormented by a Hollow, the reason why he did all those awful things to you and Momo, the reason why he sent that same Hollow after me a second time, and even the reason why he started filling my body with even more of that serum."

"What is the serum even for?"

"He wanted to kill my mind and make Tatsuya take over my body, transforming it into a dragon that he could control to take over the Soul Society. He almost had all of the serum needed to kill me off into my system, but you showed up before the last half of the bag was injected into me."

"I wish I had arrived earlier to save you," he whispered dejectedly, hanging his head in sorrow.

I turned to him then, grasping his chin and gently lifting his face to look at me, and said, "Don't blame yourself for something you had no control over."

I leaned in and planted a kiss on his lips, but it was too quick for his liking and he cupped the back of my neck to keep me still as he kissed me passionately. An emotion I couldn't name welled up from within as I kissed back, placing a hand on his chest and feeling his heart race as I felt the fingers on his other hand slide through my hair. Someone cleared their throat behind us and we jumped in surprise, I nearly hopped away from Toshiro but he all of a sudden had a hold of my waist to keep me close to him. We turned around to see Rangiku and Momo, one Lieutenant openly laughing and the other blushing profusely.

"Oh, Momo," Rangiku said in between laughs, "I wish you had told me that they were up here kissing! I would have found a way to capture this moment forever in a picture!"

"How was I supposed to know?" Momo squeaked, looking away as her blushing increased.

Before Toshiro could come up with a snappy comeback, I yelled, "Quit acting so surprised, Rangiku! You knew it would happen eventually!"

"Yes, but I never thought that my two babies would grow up so fast!" she said, pretending to wipe away a tear of joy.

Toshiro was up and running in a flash, making Rangiku shriek and run away as Toshiro yelled at her. I heard him cursing his luck to have a Lieutenant like her and I laughed, loving the crazy antics between the two of them. I saw Momo approach me with a sad look and my laughter stopped instantly.

"What's wrong, Momo?" I asked her, standing up and walking over to her to close the distance.

"It's just… when I heard that Aizen was back… I felt a sense of relief, even though he tried to kill me," she whispered, looking down in despair. "Even though I'm happy that you're my Captain now, I keep thinking back to how wonderful he was to me before and… it just doesn't seem real that he turned out to be the traitor."

"I know, Momo," I said softly. "I almost couldn't believe what I had been told about him either when I had seen how kind and loving he was with you. You're my sister. I understand what you're going through. Just know that I will always be here for you if you need it, not just as your Captain."

"Thank you so much, sister!" Momo exclaimed, hugging me tightly. When she let go, she happened to look down at what I was wearing, noticed the thick bandages and haori, and gasped. "Oh, my gosh! What in the world are you wearing?"

"I don't know, but it looks hot!" I heard Rangiku say as she skidded to a halt beside us. "You should wear it more often! Toshiro absolutely loves it!"

I was instantly blushing as I heard Toshiro yell, "Rangiku! Quit being a nuisance!" His Lieutenant laughed and ran off again with Toshiro at her heels.

"Hey, Toshiro Hitsugaya!" we heard someone yell, turning around to see a figure running in our direction. I saw Toshiro look miffed about the misuse of his title again and saw the familiar orange hair as the person skidded to a stop ten feet away. "You remember me, don't ya?"

"What I remember most is your terrible manners," Toshiro huffed, looking away angrily and crossing his arms. "And it's Captain Hitsugaya to you."

"Yeah, yeah, sure," he said, waving away the inconvenience of remembering all of this. Instead, he tilted his head to the side a bit and gave him a grin of amusement. "Anyways, I was told by Rangiku that you had a girlfriend and I didn't believe her, so I had to come up here to see it myself. Where is she?"

"I'm assuming you mean me," I said, taking a step forward. I saw a slight blush creep up on his cheeks as he saw me. "Unless, of course, there's some other girl that I need to go and kill right away."

"Oh, no, it definitely has to be you," he said with a laugh. He flash stepped before me and Toshiro glared at his back from where he was standing. The stranger held out his hand for me to shake. "My name is Ichigo Kurosaki and I had the pleasure of helping out with your rescue in my world."

I took his hand with a grin of my own and shook it before saying, "Ah, so you're the Big Bad Ryoka I've heard so much about! I was wondering if I'd ever get the chance to meet you one day!"

"And I've heard a lot about you!" he told me, the blush getting a bit brighter. "While I was fighting Kenpachi, he said you were one of the few people who actually managed to beat him in a fight. Not a lot of people can say that."

"You won't be able to for long either since he's running up the hill after you right now," I said.

"Where?!" he asked, ducking behind me quickly as he scanned the area. I started to laugh hysterically once everyone looked around for Kenpachi as well, finally dawning on them that I was messing around. Ichigo looked back at me furiously with his fists clenched before saying, "Why, you—"

Toshiro appeared to my rescue and told him, "Whatever it is that you plan on saying, I suggest you drop it. I wouldn't mess with her if I were you."

"Why, because you'll protect her? You're short; you wouldn't be able to do anything."

"Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah!"

They got in each other's faces, glaring and I could almost see the sparks fly between their gazes. I stifled my laugh and grabbed the both of them by the collar to pull them apart. "Can we not act like children for five seconds?" I demanded.

"I'm not a child!" Toshiro yelled at me.

I had a snarky comment I was about to lash him with when a member of the Stealth Force appeared before us, bowing low to the ground. "Captain Hinamori, Captain Hitsugaya."

"What news do you bring?" Toshiro asked.

"Captain Hinamori, the Head Captain sent a message. He said that an outbreak of Hollows is threatening Karakura Town. He wishes for you to go there and stop them before they destroy the city."

"Oh, no… My family," Ichigo whispered, looking horrified.

"Tell him I'll leave once I go collect my Zanpakuto," I told the Stealth Force member just before he seemed to disappear into thin air.

Ichigo and I ran off to Squad 4 to collect my things, the rest of them chasing after us with Toshiro calling my name. It didn't take long to get there and I got changed into my dragon kimono. I strapped Tatsuya to my back once more and jumped back outside to the courtyard. I summoned a doorway for us to get to Karakura Town as Toshiro grabbed me to pull me aside.

"What do you think you are doing?" he asked and I could practically feel the worry coursing off of him. "It's almost dawn! You can't be out in the sunlight, remember?"

"For now, I have to. I can't just let Ichigo head back to his world and try to fend them off all by himself."

"Let me come with you!" Toshiro said and this was the first time I'd heard him so close to begging. His eyes looked glassy and his body was shaking almost imperceptibly, so I hugged him to me as tight as I could.

"No, Shiro," I told him, using his pet name.

Back in the past, when I had a hard time relearning how to speak, I would always hear Momo calling him Lil Shiro. Of course he hated it, even going so far as to create a name for Momo. He'd always call her Bed-wetter Momo. His name was a little too long for me back then, so I one day followed them around before speaking each of their names. I think the only reason he never protested was because he knew how hard it was for me to even say that much.

I didn't release him from my embrace, even though I could feel him fighting it out of anger. "You know that it's best for you to stay here," I said, trying to gaze into his eyes to show that I meant every word I said. "I promise that I won't be long in the Human World. It should take no more than a day."

He stopped moving altogether for a few seconds before grasping my chin to tilt my head back and kissing me roughly. I heard Ichigo cough awkwardly and Rangiku yelled a few catcalls before Toshiro pulled away slightly, looking deep into my eyes. I saw how bright they were, shining with a sudden determination.

"I will stay," he told me, his voice almost coming out like a growl. "But if you are even just a minute late within your 24 hour time limit, I will rush to the Human World after you. There is nothing you can do to stop me from doing so."

I grinned at him before rushing to the doorway that Ichigo was standing beside. I turned back to wave at everyone, Rangiku and Momo wishing us luck as Toshiro stared after us. "Oh, and Ichigo?" he called to the orange haired figure beside me. Ichigo looked over at him curiously and Toshiro said, "Don't let her leave your sight and she better come back in one piece or I will personally rip you limb from limb."

Ichigo grinned wildly, saluted Toshiro in a sarcastic fashion, and said, "Aye, aye, Captain!"

We jumped through the doorway and took off running, using flash steps to make it through faster until we finally reached the Land of the Living. The sun was about to rise from the horizon and I pulled my hood up over my head, adjusting it just so that I could see through the blue painted eyes and casting the rest of my face in shadow. We were on that same hill that I had arrived on the last time I had been sent here and we watched the city below us for signs of Hollows.

"So tell me," Ichigo said, turning to look at me, "why is it that Toshiro was so hesitant to let you come here while it's daylight? And why is it that you have the hood covering your face?"

"The short story is that I have this… poison running through my veins that wants to kill my mind. The moment any part of my skin is exposed to the light, it eats away at it and it won't stop until it hits bone. This hood helps me stay in the shadows."

"The poison tries to kill your mind?" he asked incredulously, his brown eyes widening in shock.

"Do you remember Aizen, the traitor of the Soul Society?" I asked him, watching as he thought about it for a few seconds before nodding that he did in fact remember the man. "Come to find out, he had created this serum that he had given to the Hollow that abducted me a second time, one that kills a Soul Reaper's mind and forces the spirit of their Zanpakuto to take over their body. Then the spirit will manifest its physical form from the Soul Reaper's body but be under Aizen's absolute control. In the meantime, it looks and feels like your body is shutting down on you, even though monitors and tests will prove that you are perfectly healthy."

"Man, I can only imagine if that ever happened to me," Ichigo said to himself with a smile. "Zangetsu would be so angry, but I have a feeling he would fight to the bitter end before allowing that to happen to either one of us."

"That's the problem that Tatsuya and I are faced with," I said before turning to him. "So, your Zanpakuto is named Zangetsu?"

"That's right. He can be pretty scary sometimes in his manifested form."

"My Tatsuya was never scary to me," I said to myself, feeling a strange melancholy spread through me. "Even back before I had my Zanpakuto, I could sense him and he was always there for me in my dreams. Anyway, we should return our focus back to the urgent task at hand. We may need to wait at least until dusk falls before any Hollows appear in great numbers like member of the Stealth Force said."

Ichigo suggested that we stay at his place, but I wanted to stay up on this hill in case anything changed so that I would have a good view of the city. I could tell that he wanted to leave but knew that Toshiro might make good on his threat if he left me behind, so he sat in the shade of one of the bigger trees and took a nap. I hopped up to a shady branch on the tree beside his and watched the city for a while.

"Is your Zanpakuto's spirit trying to take control of your mind while you're still alive?" I heard Ichigo ask quietly.

"He doesn't wish to, but yes," I told him as I looked at all the cars driving around in the bustling city. "The serum has changed everything and when he senses a threat that I can't handle, he takes control of my body without a second thought."

"I know what that feels like," Ichigo said quietly. I moved on my perch in the tree to stare down at him and saw that he had the oddest expression on his face. "I have this… dark side in me. If it senses that I'm in trouble and close to being killed, it takes over and fights the threat. Nothing matters to it, not even if a friend gets too close. The dark side of me is wild and destructive, so I can't let it escape for long."

"So what do you do?"

He grinned up at me. "I fight it every step of the way and gain control back, which it hates."

I thought about what he had said for a while before he told me to get some rest. I pulled my knees up to my chest and started to doze off, almost wishing that I could be back in the sun again. The leaves moved in the breeze lightly and the shadows that were cast were hypnotic, so I fell unconscious on my perch.

* * *

I had insisted that I needed to stay as busy as possible, actually taking the paperwork from Rangiku's stack and placing it on my already overflowing one. Rangiku and Momo were talking amongst themselves as I placed signature after signature, barely stopping to read some of it but at least knowing what I was signing. I saw the two Lieutenants look over at me occasionally to see how I was holding up and looking more and more worried as the stack of papers was diminishing. Around the time I had half of them done, I heard silence befall the room and I paused to investigate why. Both of them were looking at me without saying a word as if entranced.

"What?" I asked, wondering what was going on now.

"You do know that you're acting awfully obsessive right now, right?" Rangiku said.

"I'm not that bad," I said, about to head back to working on the stack of papers when one of them cleared their throats to get my attention again. "What?" I asked again, getting frustrated.

"Nothing has happened to her yet," Momo told me. "You know the Hollows won't strike until the sun has set. It's still daylight right now. That means that Imayru and Ichigo are probably waiting somewhere safe. And even if the Hollows decide to attack them while the light is still shining, Imayru has sharp instincts that will make sneaking up on her impossible."

"I'm still leaving for the Land of the Living if she doesn't show up in exactly 24 hours," I told them flatly.

"And we're both ok with that decision," Rangiku said, rolling her eyes. "What we want is for you to quit acting like she's already dead."

"I'm not, I'm just… worried that something will go wrong," I sighed, looking down at my desk.

"From what I've heard about Captain Hinamori," a voice said from the door and I looked up to see that it was Rukia, "even if something does go terribly wrong, she will fight until her last breath to come back. She'll even protect Ichigo if he manages to get himself into some sort of trouble like he usually does."

"If that last sentence was supposed to make me feel better, then you failed miserably," I told her, glaring a little at her attempts to help.

"What I'm trying to say is that she will definitely be coming back, even if it's a little worse for wear."

"Still not helping!" I told her, standing up and walking over to the stand that held Hyorinmaru.

"What do you think you're doing?" Rangiku asked suspiciously.

"What do you think I'm doing?" I said, tying the sheath into my green sash.

"It looks like you're getting ready to go somewhere, but I know you're not doing that."

"Well, you'd be correct for once," I told her flatly, pinning the two ends of the sash together with my star clip. I was making my way over to the door when Rukia, Rangiku, and Momo stood in front of it in an attempt to keep me from escaping. "I suggest that you all move right now."

"We'll move if you answer our questions first," Rangiku said. "Are you planning on leaving for the Human World?"

"No, I just need to go for a walk," I told them. "I've been cooped up in my office for too long and need some fresh air."

They didn't look like they believed me at all. We stood there like that for about five minutes as they assessed whether or not I was lying to them. Finally, they slowly moved apart to let me through and I didn't look back. I walked around the Seireitei aimlessly, not sure what to do but knowing that I was going crazy while Imayru was gone. I reached the point where I found myself in the same area that the large cherry blossom tree that Imayru had hidden in. I paced back and forth in front of its large trunk, trying to decide what to do. I told her that I would stay, but I still wanted nothing more than to leave right this second just to watch out for her from afar.

"What am I going to do?" I asked myself, forcing myself to sit down on one of the large roots poking out of the ground. I gazed up at the sky to see that it was tinged in orange now, causing the anxiety to increase to dangerous levels.

"I have a feeling that you're going to go after her into the Human World," I heard someone say. I shook my head to clear my raging thoughts and looked up to see that Momo had found my hiding spot.

"What are you doing here?" I asked her.

"I could ask you the same question," she said, walking over to me. "I'm surprised that you haven't left yet. What's holding you back?"

"I told her that I would stay. I don't want to go against my word, but I am really worried about her. What if another Hollow takes her?"

"Ichigo is there with her and you know he'll bring her back if something happens. He's strong for a substitute Soul Reaper."

I didn't say anything for the longest time, knowing that Momo was right. I just had to calm down and wait for her to come back to me. It wasn't until I had a deep feeling of fear that I couldn't explain that I knew I needed to leave for the Land of the Living. I gave Momo an apologetic look before summoning a gateway to the Human World, about to jump through when I heard Momo come closer.

"I'm coming with you," she said stubbornly, the look in her eyes told me that there would be no convincing her out of coming along. I nodded and we both jumped through together, running as fast as we could as the feeling I had got even worse.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

I stretched out on my branch after I woke up, nearly falling to the ground when I lost my balance. I hung upside down for a few seconds, feeling my heart race as I hugged the tree branch tightly with my arms and legs. I heard Ichigo try to stifle his laughter but he didn't do so very well. I grabbed a big stick and tossed it down at him, smacking him in the back of the head before I pulled myself back up. He grumbled as he rubbed the spot the stick hit him and glared up at me when I smiled gleefully. I dangled my feet into the air and gazed down at Karakura Town to see movement. I stood up quickly, grabbing hold of the trunk for balance and leaning outwards to get a better view.

"What do you see?" Ichigo asked me, standing and walking over to the tree I was in.

"Trouble," I said simply, watching as the sun went down and the monsters seemed to just crawl out from under the floorboards. He jumped up to stand beside me and I pointed down to the city.

"Karin, Yuzu, stay safe," he whispered to himself.

"Your sisters, I take it?" I asked, still looking out onto the city.

"Yes. They both have a higher spiritual pressure than normal humans and that makes them a target sometimes."

"Then we'll release so much spiritual pressure of our own that they'll be too distracted to go after anyone else," I told him, feeling a burning determination flow through me.

I grabbed Ichigo by the arm and flash stepped away and into the city, spotting another park that Ichigo said was opposite of where he lived. I even noticed that it was cleared out perfectly so that no one would get hurt during out fight. I stopped in the very middle of the park and released the cap on my spiritual pressure. I heard Ichigo grunt and hunch over slightly before shoving his own spiritual pressure out into the air. I smiled as the air clogged with our reiatsu and I heard the cries of Hollows in the distance. I pulled Tatsuya from the chain on my back and felt a familiar spark coming from the blade itself. I smiled and whipped the blade to the side, watching it as it sliced through the air and dark sparks flew. I saw Ichigo grab his Zanpakuto from his back, the white bandage slipping away from the blade itself to reveal one of the largest Zanpakutos I had ever seen. It was then that the Hollows began to appear at the edges of the park and filter in between the trees.

We didn't move a muscle until the Hollows got closer, watching as they ran at us full tilt. I saw Ichigo about to run to them out of the corner of my eye, but held out my arm to stop him. He turned to look at me and I'm sure he wanted to yell something, but I shook my head. I yanked my hood off and let my hair trail out into the wind, a sudden storm brewing up above us and lightning slicing through the night sky. They were a hundred feet away when I dropped my arm and charged with my Zanpakuto out beside me. We both jumped through the air, slicing the masks of the Hollows before us and launching ourselves at another. Shadowy flames leapt from my blade as I kept attacking more and more Hollows, sending my spiritual pressure higher in intensity to alert any Hollows that were on the other side of the city. One Hollow grabbed hold of me and squeezed my body with its hand. I hissed in pain as the flames from my Zanpakuto leapt up my arms and latched onto my back, wings erupting from my skin and slicing through the Hollow's hand. It howled in pain and I flew at its head to slice through its mask with ease.

I saw Ichigo struggling below me within a ring of Hollows, so I flew down to him and landed with my back facing his, my fiery tail curling around my feet as I moved my wings so Ichigo wouldn't be burned. The dark clouds seemed to burst as the rain poured down on us, the thunder loud in our ears and almost drowning out the cries of the Hollows. Whenever one got too close, one of us would cut its mask and watch it disappear, another Hollow moving to take the previous one's place.

"Do you think we're going to make it through this alive?" Ichigo asked me with a snarky grin on his face.

"Of course we are! If you die, you still have to explain to Toshiro why I'm gone whereas I will no longer exist!" I yelled, slashing through another Hollow. "I don't relish the idea of being dead again after being alive for so long as a soul!"

"You're right about that one," Ichigo said, taking out another one. "He wouldn't let me live long enough anyways, so I would be following you in nonexistence as well!"

The circle of Hollows constricted some more and the time for talking was over. I hissed threateningly when one got too close, watching as it flinched for a valuable second so I slashed through it. All of a sudden, the ground rumbled as a thunder shook the sky, lightning cracking the sky. I looked up and froze in shock, seeing that the bolt of lightning stretched across the sky but refused to fade out like normal. It seemed as if the sky was being ripped apart. Finally, the crack of light spread open and I saw a large pointed face looking down at us.

"And things just managed to get worse!" I shouted to Ichigo over the pounding rain. He looked up at the sky and I saw him pale instantly. "It's a Menos Grande!"

It stuck its foot through the gap in dimensions, pulling its way through and standing behind the crowd of Hollows. Thankfully, I didn't see another one about to come through the gap so I took the chance to go after it. I jumped into the air and flew at it, my blade lighting up as the flames crackled against the steel. With a scream of fury, I flew up before it and dodged its flailing hands as it tried to keep me away. I grasped the blade hard and my knuckles turned white as I rammed my Zanpakuto up and through the bottom of the Menos Grande's mask until I reached the top of its head. It disintegrated in a burst of dark fire, making the gap in the sky seal back up tightly.

I never saw the flying Hollow coming as it appeared at my side. I whipped around in midair as it tried to swallow me and I rammed my blade into its mouth so it couldn't close it. It howled in pain and aimed itself towards the ground. I wasn't going to be able to get away in time but managed to slash through it before I hit the ground hard. I felt my brain begin to shut down as a roar echoed through my ears. I saw Ichigo come over to me and yell something, but the roaring was too loud and it made my vision shift into different shades of red. I felt my canines elongate and the flames on my body intensify just before my mind was forced aside.

* * *

I don't think either of us was prepared when we stepped out of the gate to the Human World. Our first second there, we were almost knocked to our feet by a large gust of wind that was blowing from a storm over the city. The pouring rain had us soaked to the bone within seconds and it was hard to even see a thing. I had to place my hand above my eyes to keep the rain from stinging them and finally made out large moving shapes in a large circle in a park that wasn't all that far away. I grabbed Momo by the hand and flash stepped to the park, landing in a tree on the outskirts of the park to observe what was happening. We were close enough to hear the howls of the Hollows and just high enough to see above their heads and onto the middle of the circle. With a short gasp, I saw Ichigo standing before the prone form of Imayru, lying flat on her back with her wings spread out beneath her. Over the rain and the Hollows, I could hear what Ichigo was yelling to her.

"Imayru, get up! I need your help! Please, before they attack!"

Almost as if she had been picked up by some unknown force, she was on her feet and standing before Ichigo. She had a hold of the front of his kimono and tossed him out of the circle. I could see that her eyes had turned red from here just before all of the Hollows rushed at her. They leapt at her as she stood stock still, looking powerful with all of the flames pouring off of her as the wind whipped at her clothing, the Hollows making her disappear in a sick form of a dog pile. I was about to rush to her when Momo grabbed hold of my arm to stop me. I felt the ground shake ominously just before a huge dome of fire erupted from the pile of Hollows. I heard Imayru scream with such ferocity that it had Momo shaking, the pile of Hollows disappearing to reveal Imayru standing alone and shuddering from the strain. Ichigo ran over to her to check up on her when she let out a bone-chilling growl.

"Imayru, are you alright?" I heard him say when he was ten feet away from her.

"Stay back!" she shrieked, grabbing her head in pain.

"You have to fight it, Imayru!" he yelled to her. "If you let it beat you all the time, it will be all the harder to get it to stop later on in life!"

"I… can't!" she screamed, crouching down to the ground and pushing her fingers through her hair. "Can't… stop it! Need… blood!"

She screamed again before it was suddenly cut off, standing up so fast that I almost didn't see it. She stood still and didn't move a muscle, staring at Ichigo with those eerie crimson eyes and her head tilted to the side. Then she was running as fast as she could at him just as I flash stepped down to her, blocking her path as she slammed into me. She didn't even wait; she just immediately sank her fangs into the juncture of my neck and shoulder, not caring who she bit so long as she got the blood she needed. I slid my fingers through her hair and held onto her, wrapping my other arm around her waist. I felt my blood trickle down my chest as she adjusted herself to get better access to her goal. I then felt her tears drip down onto my haori and mix with the blood that was already slowly flowing downwards. I felt her shudder in sadness as the tears fell faster and I heard Ichigo gasp in disbelief.

"You let her bite you?" he asked. I turned my head and tried not to cringe in pain as my neck stung from Imayru's bite. I looked at him out of the corner of my eye and saw how shocked he looked. "You just seem too proud to ever let someone do something like that."

I felt the sob wrack her body and I stroked her hair. "I'd let her kill me if I had to. She means a lot to me and I never want to jeopardize what we have."

"Toshiro, this is definitely going to change things," he said. I opened my mouth to protest his misuse of my title once more when he waved it away. "Yeah, I know, it's Captain Hitsugaya. Anyway, if you keep letting her do this to you while she's in this state, she will hide from you in an attempt to protect you from herself."

Another muffled sob escaped her lips and she yanked her fangs from my neck, causing me to hiss in pain as her teeth ripped through a layer of flesh and formed two small jagged trails of blood. I saw her look at me in horror at what she had done and she took a few steps back with her hand covering her mouth. I watched her eyes slowly turn back to normal, so she must have fought against the animalistic side of her and won. The tears streamed down her cheeks and she bolted away from me, flash stepping to get away as fast as she could into the city. I was about to take off after her when I felt a hand come down onto my shoulder firmly and keep me in place.

I looked back at Ichigo to hear him say, "I'll chase after her and talk to her. You and the girl head back to the Soul Society and wait for us."

He took off in the direction of the city and followed after her reiatsu while I stared after them in shock. Momo ran over to me, giving me a sympathetic look and seemed as if she was going to say something when I stopped her. "Don't. Let's just go home." She nodded and we summoned a gateway, jumping through and heading back to my office.

* * *

I could barely see where I was going with the tears blurring my vision. A tremor of despair had me stopping as I clutched at my heart, not believing what I had just done again. The worst part about the whole situation was that I felt so… powerful. I had thrilled in the feeling when all of the Hollows leapt at me, the fire burning in my veins as I grinned up at the monsters. With a wrathful yell, I released my power into the air and incinerated everything within my reach. Then I felt so weak from using it that the beast within demanded blood. I saw Ichigo approach and could almost hear his heart beating from where I was standing and his blood rushing through his veins. Before I could stop it, the monster took over and I rush at him, only to have Toshiro take his place. The monster practically purred, its favorite blood source before it and it sank its fangs into him before I could make it stop. He didn't even fight back, he just let it bite him and I felt so awful.

"I'm so sorry, Toshiro," I cried, the tears being shed faster than I could wipe them away.

I ran blindly, not seeing the ground drop out from beneath my feet and I tumbled down a hill. I stopped rolling when I reached a river, wiping my eyes and looking around to see a bridge next to me that spanned the large river. It roared in my ears from all the excess rain and seemed like it might flood the area soon.

"Don't be concerned about the river," I heard a voice say through the storm, turning around to see Ichigo. He walked over to me and motioned for me to head under the bridge with him. "Believe it or not, but when I was young there was a time where it rained worse than it is now and didn't flood. That was a bad day."

"What happened?" I asked, my breath hitching from crying still as I followed him. He looked as if he was going to start a fire in a burn barrel that was coincidentally here, so I snapped my fingers and made flames leap up from the newspapers within it. The flames were dark for a few seconds before they turned orange like a normal fire, crackling cheerily and making things seem a little better.

"That was the day that a strong Hollow sensed my spiritual pressure as a child and my mom tried to protect me. It killed her. I've been trying to track it down on my free time ever since." He looked lost and I knew that it was a tough loss for him to accept. His mom must have meant a lot more to him than most children would ever admit. He then shook his head and gave me a serious look. "That animal side of you… you need to get a better handle on it."

"You really think I don't already know that?" I asked sarcastically, feeling better lashing out in any way than to keep being miserable about what I had done.

"No, but I think it bothers you when you hurt Toshiro like that. I saw how mortified you were when you finally managed to get control."

"Like you wouldn't be if you were in my position?" I said, my depressed state being turned into anger as the flames in the barrel got a little wilder.

"No, I wouldn't and would you like to know why? Because I wouldn't allow for that to happen. The first moment the dark side of me tried to harm anyone I care about, even if it's just a drop of a hat like a scratch, I would wrench the control away from it before it could. You, however, let it get past the point of no return and allow it to do what it wants."

"Now you listen here!" I growled, the rage escalating until I had fire in my veins again, the flames in the barrel leaping into the air uncontrollably and burning the stone under the bridge. "This is all new to me! I've never been in a situation like this and I hate it with a passion! If you _ever_ insinuate again that I just _let_ that part of me do whatever it likes, I will be forced to snap your scrawny neck!"

He openly gawked at me for a minute before giving me the biggest grin I had ever seen. "Now _that's_ the Imayru I've heard so much about! Welcome back!"

"I ought to kill you…" I mumbled, noticing with surprise that the tears stopped falling onto my face. I brought my hand up and touched the skin under my eyes with my fingertips to confirm that my observation was indeed correct.

"If you killed me, then you'd have to find someone else that knows exactly what you're going through and I'm guessing that would be hard to come by."

"Why should I care that you know what I'm going through?" I asked, wiping my eyes because they felt sticky from all the crying I had done.

"Because I can teach you to get the monster within under control as quickly as you need," he said seriously, walking in front of the fire and gazed at it as it flickered back under control once more. I gaped at him, taken aback at what he had just said to me. He of all people could teach me this? I thought it to be impossible but I saw the determination in his eyes and knew that he meant business.

"If we do this, if I let you teach me how to control it, then I need something in return."

"What is it?" he asked curiously with a tilt of his head.

I sighed and closed my eyes for a few minutes before giving him an unwavering look. "I need you to keep Toshiro away from me."

"Just until you've got the monster under control, right?"

"Of course. I wouldn't want him to stay away forever. I just… can't be around him when I keep lusting for his blood. Biting him three times is three times too many for me."

"I'll do it," he told me before walking over to me, throwing his arm over my shoulder for comfort. "Now, let's head back to the Soul Society. But one last question before we go. Do you want to speak to Toshiro before you isolate from him?"

"No, I think it's best if I separate from him now or it will be much harder to do so after."

"Alright, if you say so."

I made a doorway for us to pass through into the Seireitei, taking off as fast as we could before it shut on us and left us in limbo forever. When we reached the other side, it was conveniently outside in the courtyard of my headquarters. Unfortunately for us, Rangiku, Momo, Toshiro, and Rukia were all waiting for us to appear as dawn began to arrive. Not knowing what else to do, I put up my hood and walked towards my quarters with Ichigo still keeping his arm around my shoulders.

Before any of them could say a word, I said softly, "I must insist that you all return to your respective posts instead of loitering in my territory."

They all looked shocked at my change in attitude as Ichigo and I walked past them. "Wait, Imayru!" I heard Toshiro call to me. Ichigo let go of me and whipped around to face him, blocking his path as I walked towards the stairs that led to my quarters. "What do you think you're doing? Get out of my way!"

"Imayru needs for you to stay away from her for now," Ichigo told him calmly.

"If you don't move right now, I will be forced to make you!" he yelled, unsheathing his Zanpakuto.

Rangiku and Momo grabbed him quickly, Momo taking his sword from him and putting it back in its sheath as Rangiku clamped her arms around him to keep his pressed tightly against his sides. "What are you doing?" Rangiku asked, shock still evident in her voice. "You can't let out your Zanpakuto in the Seireitei at a time like this!"

"I will if he keeps me from her!" Toshiro yelled, giving me a look of anguish as Rukia helped the girls when he seemed to be overpowering them. I looked down and did the most difficult thing I had ever done yet. I walked away from him and made my way up the stairs as I heard him cry out my name over and over. I felt tears fall down my face again and I kept the same pace all the way to my door, opening it and looking inside to see my office. I hadn't been inside here in a very long time, spending most of my time in Squad 10 since my return to the Soul Society when I became a Captain again. Walking inside my room didn't help the thoughts running through my mind either when I saw the remnants of the pillow fort where Toshiro and I had almost experienced our first kiss. I fixed up the pillow fort again and created a spot for Ichigo to sleep when I heard him come in.

"The girls got Toshiro to leave, but he fought them every step of the way before we closed the gates behind him," he said. "I explained everything to Momo and she understands. She is going to do the same for Rukia, Rangiku, and even Toshiro once he calms down."

"I didn't think he'd react so badly," I whispered, staring down at the floor aimlessly.

"What did you think would happen, that he'd jump for joy?" Ichigo asked sarcastically.

"No, I just thought… he'd stay calm and accept it."

"That guy cares for you more than he'd ever admit to anyone besides you. Even if you think you're a danger to him, he'd still rather be by your side."

Feeling miserable, I just crawled into the newly made pillow fort as Ichigo plopped down onto his makeshift bed. I curled up under an extra blanket and fell asleep with tears falling down my cheeks. My dreams didn't help with the misery I felt, my subconscious deciding that I hadn't suffered enough. I dreamed that I had been seriously injured by Aizen, wandering aimlessly in a dark corridor when I saw Toshiro's bright hair in front of me. I ran to him, wanting to feel his arms around me again when I felt a bloodlust come over me once more and demand that I bite him. I saw him open his arms to me and, with no control over my actions, I rushed at him, leaping into the air and slamming him into the ground. I sank my fangs into his jugular and drank him dry, hearing him whisper that he loved me and that everything would be ok. When I finally gained control, it was too late. Toshiro was already dead and there was nothing I could do. I woke up instantly, about to scream in anguish when I remembered that Ichigo was sleeping in the room with me. I caught my breath before going back to a rough slumber.

I woke up later in the morning, pushing my way out of the pillow fort to see Ichigo waiting for me. "You had a nightmare," he pointed out. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No," I said simply, feeling exhausted and wanted to go back to sleep but knew that there wasn't time for it anymore.

"Well, let's go get started," he said, offering a hand for me to take so he could pull me to my feet. I took it and pulled myself up, feeling empty inside as if the wind could carry me away if it blew hard enough.

I forced him out of the room and changed into a sleeveless and backless training outfit, sliding my blade into the ribbon tying it together. We walked outside to the balcony and jumped down into the courtyard. I told Ichigo about the training grounds that apprentices used which would now be empty due to the fact that it was nighttime. He said for me to lead the way and we took off in the direction of one of the larger forests to the north. From my quarters, it wasn't that far away so we reached the training grounds in about five minutes. It was a large clearing with a few practice dummies on the edge closest to the wall and we flash stepped to the very middle.

"You know that we had a shadow following us the entire way, right?" Ichigo asked, scowling slightly as he turned towards the wall.

"I knew that he'd follow from a distance," I whispered, looking up and seeing the familiar shock of snowy white hair. He was sitting on the highest part of the wall, one leg dangling down while the other was pulled up as close to his chest as he could get it.

"Well, there's nothing I can do. He's just observing and it's not like he's interfering with what we're going to do. Let's get started," he said turning back to me and putting himself between me and him. "I should probably explain what this training is going to entail."

"That would be helpful," I said sarcastically, seeing his eyes light up as he grinned.

"I'm going to enjoy this," he said. "Anyway, this training is going to be brutal. Until dawn, we're going to fight. I'm going to keep after you until you reach your breaking point, until your inner animal fights your every move to try and take control. I want you so close to the edge that you keep fighting for control just to win. And you better not let it either or those nightmares of yours will only get worse."

"How long will this training last?" I asked curiously.

"As long as it takes for you to be able to show that monster of yours that you're the one that in control."

I pulled out my Zanpakuto and pointed it at him with a mischievous smile. "Then let's get to it."

* * *

It had been a long day for me. After Imayru had run from me back in the Human World, I had decided that I would wait for her to come back with the others. I barely heard them speaking as the girls chattered on about something, but my mind was on her and what she must be going through. I knew that she hated doing what she did and even went so far as to hate herself. I felt relief crash through me when I saw the gate appear out of thin air, then pure anger when I saw them together. He had his arm around her shoulders and she refused to look up as they walked closer to us.

I was about to say something to her when she said, "I must insist that you all return to your respective posts instead of loitering in my territory."

I was crushed beneath her words, too shocked to even move when she and Ichigo passed by us. When I had snapped out of it, I called out her name and was about to rush to her when Ichigo blocked my path. It was a haze of red after that. I tried to pull my Zanpakuto on him, but the girls had me in a tight grip and pulled me out of the courtyard. I saw Imayru look back at me with such a sad expression before she took off up the stairs and out of my sight. I hissed in fury as Momo and Ichigo shut the gates behind us. I howled as the tears fell, wanting nothing more than to break free and break the gate to get to Imayru, but Rangiku and Rukia were pulling me away and towards my headquarters. Before we got there, Momo arrived to help drag me along.

"Snap out of it, Toshiro!" Momo yelled. "This has gone on for too long!"

"I just want to see Imayru!" I yelled back, almost overpowering all three of them when I felt a stinging slap to my face that had my head whipping to the side. I turned back in shock to see Momo with tears streaming down her face.

"I'm s-sorry, Toshiro!" she cried. "I didn't know what else to do!"

I rubbed my cheek in hopes that the stinging would go away and quietly said, "It's ok, Momo. I understand why you did it."

I shook off the others' hold on me and walked calmly back to my quarters, the three girls following behind me. Later, when we were all settled down for the day, Momo explained to us what was going to go on. Imayru was going to train with Ichigo to keep Tatsuya from taking over. I was happy for her, but still didn't understand why it was that she wanted to keep me away from her. I guess I must have muttered it aloud because I heard Momo say, "It's because whenever Tatsuya takes over, she bites you and she's afraid that it'll happen again if you get too close."

I growled in frustration before going over to my desk to do paperwork. I watched as they all scattered, Rangiku heading out with Rukia for some reason and Momo going back to Squad 5 to do work while her Captain was sleeping. I refused to sleep the day away but stayed awake until around sunset when I headed outside to see Imayru and Ichigo running to the training grounds. I stayed up on the highest wall by the grounds and watched them stand there for a bit before the Zanpakutos were out and they clashed in a shower of sparks. It seemed like all I could even do was wait.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

There was a lull in the fighting as we leaned against our Zanpakutos, the points of the blades pressed into the dirt as we panted heavily. I felt my skin twitching as I was getting close to the brink, Ichigo observing me closely from where he was standing. Before I could move away, he had flash stepped before me, giving me only a few seconds to block his strike. I could hear a roaring in my ears as Tatsuya fought to get free and I tried to push him back into the Zanpakuto to no avail. Ichigo pressed his blade harder against mine, his teeth bared from the strength he was using just to try and push me back.

"Fight it, Imayru!" he growled in my face. "Your eyes are turning red!"

I snarled and kicked him away before rushing at him, he blocked my strike and we clashed again. We flash stepped at each other and kept swinging our blades, sparks flying from the steel and from my skin. Before I could stop it, shadowy wings erupted from my back as I hissed out a breath. Another growl from Ichigo as he smashed into me using his full body weight and almost taking my head off with his Zanpakuto. Thankfully, I blocked it just in time as Tatsuya roared even louder and took hold of me.

"Your eyes are red; he's got control now, doesn't he?" Ichigo asked, pushing even harder and nearly putting me on my back.

I bared my fangs at him before screaming in rage as I fought back. I grasped my blade and pushed against his as hard as I could, feeling powerful again as I watched the sweat bead on his forehead. Finally, I pushed him away before shoving Tatsuya back down into the depths of my subconscious. Ichigo stopped, watching me as I panted heavily again and pushed the point of my Zanpakuto into the earth so I could lean on it for balance. He grinned when he saw something he approved of from me.

"Good," he said simply, his grin getting bigger when I glared at him. "You might have let him take over for a while, but you got control much faster than before. Alright, let's start again."

He barely gave me time to block again, pushing me until I reached the edge again. Tatsuya was pushing hard at me again and I could feel him begin to take control, but I did something that surprised me. I grabbed hold of the power he possessed and utilized it. I ran at Ichigo, baring the fangs that hadn't receded yet from the last time Tatsuya took control, and slashed my sword at him vehemently. He didn't seem prepared for the ferocity of my attack and flash stepped away, so I chased after him with fire lashing out of my blade. I saw him blast out his spiritual pressure in an attempt to stop me but I pushed on through to clash against his blade. Dark looking sparks flew into the air as he snarled at me, pulling away his blade to try and hit me again but I smacked it away with ease and had my blade against his throat, forcing him to pause as he fought for breath.

"Your eyes are red, but they're different this time," he panted, looking serious. "You're the one that is in control. What did you do differently?"

"Tatsuya and I… it was like we were in sync for the first time in forever and he let me use his power to fight instead of taking control away from me."

"Are you still in sync with him right now?" he asked curiously.

"Yes, why?"

"Toshiro!" Ichigo yelled up to the man sitting on the wall. I saw him focus his attention on us as Ichigo motioned for him to come down. I took a few steps back as Toshiro seemed to just appear before us with a quizzical look.

"What is it?" he asked, looking up at him.

"Imayru, let's test it and see if you want to bite him," Ichigo said and I saw Toshiro's eyes darken from an unknown emotion.

"No!" I yelled, absolutely horrified. I felt the bloodlust in me start to sizzle in my mind but I didn't want it to go too far, so I took off running towards the woods. I flash stepped into the branches of the trees as fast as I could, knowing that I could outrun both of them and taking advantage of that fact.

I saw that dawn was fast approaching and cursed my bad luck, so I circled back around and found my way back to the Seireitei. I didn't catch sight of either of them as I made my way back to my quarters, stopping on the railing and lowering myself down onto my balcony before going inside my quarters. I saw the sun rise from the buildings and crawled into my blanket fort. I pulled a blanket above my head to block out the sounds of the birds and fell asleep quickly, only to have that same nightmare play through my head again. This time, I woke up screaming and had tears streaming down my cheeks. I crawled out of the fort, going to do some paperwork that Momo left for me when I saw Toshiro standing by the window, staring out at the surroundings.

"I was going to comfort you while you were sleeping, but you woke up too quickly," he said, still watching out the window. "What were you dreaming about?"

"It doesn't matter," I said, refusing to move closer to him.

"I think it does," he told me, anger tinging his voice. "I think it would explain why you ran from me earlier."

"No, I ran from you to protect you. Where's Ichigo?"

"He's still looking for you out in the woods. I had a hunch that this would be where you're hiding and I was right. Now, what was the nightmare about?" he insisted, finally turning to me and glaring, his eyes looking glassy and haunted. I saw the dark bags under his eyes and he seemed as if he hadn't slept in a long time.

"If I tell you, then you should get some sleep after." He nodded and I took a step closer to him. "I've been dreaming that Aizen hurt me badly and I was bleeding out while wandering around in the darkness. Then I spot you and want nothing more than for you to hold me in my last moments, only to have Tatsuya take over and demand blood. Because I was so weak, I couldn't stop him from biting through to your jugular vein and drinking from you until you died. You didn't even fight me, you just stroked my back and told me that you loved me, that everything would be ok. Then I felt your life slip away by the time I got control of my body and I screamed while knowing that it was all my fault. I just don't want that to ever happen in reality."

I was looking down at my feet, watching as the tears dropped down onto the floor around my toes, not even noticing that Toshiro was walking over to me until he had me in his embrace. I felt a shudder pass through me as he held me closely, feeling the tears soak the front of his haori as he leaned his chin on top of my head. I felt him stroke my back as I gripped his clothes tighter to pull him closer to me. Finally, once the tears stopped running down my face, I lifted my head up to look at him. He looked so tired and I felt awful about putting him through this, so I pulled away from him before grabbing him by the arm to lead him to my pillow fort. We crawled inside and I lay down with him, laying my head onto his chest as he wrapped his arms around my waist. I felt him kiss the top of my head and he slowly relaxed, slipping into unconsciousness easily. I was warm and comfortable as I listened to his breathing, his heart rate slowing down and its hypnotic beat causing me to relax as well, slipping into a peaceful sleep for the first time in days.

When I woke again, I heard Toshiro's steady heartbeat beneath my ear and looked up to see that he was still asleep. I stretched a little when my muscles screamed in protest from being still for so long, moving a little to see that Ichigo was sitting outside the blanket cave. He turned his head to look at me before looking back outside the window.

"Don't worry, I haven't been here long," he whispered, keeping his voice down so as to not wake up Toshiro. "I just wanted to apologize to you for forcing a situation upon you that you didn't want to be in."

"It's ok, Ichigo," I whispered back calmly. "You thought that it would help me know that I had my control back. I don't blame you for just trying to help."

I heard Toshiro mumble my name and hold onto me tighter, Ichigo observing the whole thing. "He really does love you, doesn't he?" he asked quietly, his eyes softening as he looked back to me.

"He hasn't uttered those exact three little words that could make a girl swoon though," I said, giving him a feeble smile.

"Sometimes people won't say them if they're afraid they'll be rejected," Ichigo whispered, turning back to the window.

"Then I can understand why he hasn't. Back before I was became a Soul Reaper, he was younger and kept talking about marrying me one day. I would always laugh it off until one day he made me get a matching tattoo and have a little ceremony. The only reason I got the tattoo in the first place was because it looked cool." I moved my hair from my back and showed him the tattoo. It was a huge crescent moon with what looked like a lightning bolt, two more crescents that curved opposite of the larger one. "I never thought he was serious until he went around telling people that my name was Imayru Hitsugaya when we both went to the academy to train to be Soul Reapers. One day, I snapped at him, telling him that I couldn't one day become a Captain with him messing up my chances like this. I didn't mean it, just said that out of anger. He never brought up us getting married one day again. In fact, I didn't see him smile for the longest time. He separated himself from me and he didn't talk to me until I became a Captain faster than anyone ever had. He came to my office to congratulate me. He only became this open to me recently, after I came back from the Human World to be a Captain again."

"He's just hesitant you'll reject him again."

"I wouldn't do that a second time," I whispered, reminiscing about that moment always made me feel low. "He means a lot to me. I don't want to lose him."

"So tell him how you feel before it's too late."

"I can't just yet," I said, giving him a sad smile. "The timing isn't right."

I felt Toshiro's breathing pick up and his brow scrunched up as a shiver went through him, the temperature slowly dropping in the room. I had a feeling that he was having a nightmare, too, so I wrapped my arms around his neck and held him to me tightly. He whimpered for a few minutes before calming down, and I watched as his eyes slowly opened and he looked up at me. Before I could utter a single syllable to ask him if he was ok, his lips were on mine and had his fingers gripping my hair tightly to keep me in place. I slid my fingers through his hair, loving the feel of it and wishing I could say what I needed to. He pulled away a little to lean his forehead against mine, breathing hard still from the nightmare.

"I'm so glad that you're still alive," he whispered, his warm breath fanning onto my face.

"I don't plan on dying or leaving you again anytime soon," I whispered back, kissing him quickly.

"Please don't. I couldn't bear for you to go again."

We stayed like that for the longest time, just lying there in each other's arms and keeping our foreheads touching, until Ichigo cleared his throat to get our attention. "What is it?" I asked him, not moving to look over at him.

"The sun is setting," he told me. "We should get dinner and then go back to training."

I told him to get Momo and bring dinner back up to the room, so he left quickly to fetch her. I was about to sit up when Toshiro grabbed me and pulled me back. "Before we leave this little haven we have, there's something I need to tell you."

"What?" I asked, feeling a nervous flutter in my stomach.

His turquoise eyes seemed to just shine as he said, "I love you, Imayru. I just wanted to let you know that no matter what happens, no matter if you end up hurting me, I will always love you. And I want to marry you one day like I promised I would."

"Oh, Shiro," I whispered, feeling my eyes burn from unshed tears as I hugged him tightly, wrapping my arms around him and burying my face in his neck.

"I love you," he whispered in my ear, saying those three little words again as if he couldn't get enough of it now that he got it out in the open and making me shiver. "You don't have to say it back yet, I just wanted you to know how I felt now. I know that you care for me, I see it all the time when you think you have to protect me from yourself."

"I still don't want to hurt you," I whispered back.

"I know," he said, hugging me tightly one more time before he got up and led me outside of the pillow fort.

We waited out in the office for Ichigo and Momo, me sitting on Toshiro's lap for a while as he played with my hair. He twirled it around in his fingers, every now and again he'd grab me by the chin and kiss me lightly before going back to messing with my hair. Finally I did the same to him, sliding his bangs away from hanging in front of his left eye. We were just messing around by the time they arrived with food for us all. Ichigo had a goofy looking grin on his face when he saw us and I was about to start braiding my hair back to the way it was when I first got her when Toshiro stopped me.

"Leave it," he said. "I haven't seen it like this in a long time and it's fun to play with."

I moved off of his lap and over to sit beside him, moving plates amongst ourselves to dish out food. We mostly talked about the things that were new in the Human World, like all of the technology. I was up to date on things since I had lived out there for so long, living from tree branch to tree branch during the day and then fighting off Hollows during the night. Momo was in awe at all the crazy things they had, coffee mostly being the object of her interests, while Toshiro acted like a big shot as if nothing surprised him anymore. I smiled when I saw his interest piqued as Ichigo talked about cell phones and how you could contact someone within seconds as if they were right there with you. I knew immediately that Toshiro was wishing he could use them here to keep track of me and I rolled my eyes, watching as a small smile played across his lips as he observed my expressions.

This is how our days seemed to go. Every night, Ichigo would take me out to the training grounds and we'd fight, pushing me to the very edge where Tatsuya would try to take over and I would take his power before he could so I could use it to fight back. Toshiro would always be there to watch, sometimes Momo, Rangiku, or Rukia would watch with him. At dawn, we'd all head back to my quarters, Ichigo sleeping on his makeshift bed while Toshiro slept next to me under the pillow fort. Upon waking up, we'd have food set out so that we'd have the energy to fight all night. By the end of seven days, Tatsuya and I were finally in sync at all times and I could feel his presence in my mind constantly, his contented purr sending waves of warmth through me and I felt the vibration from my Zanpakuto. I finally felt like I was just before I was taken to Hueco Mundo, powerful and at peace with Tatsuya. Panting, I stood before Ichigo with ethereal wings, talons, and a tail that I had summoned by choice and grinned at him.

"I guess we can finally say that your training is now complete!" he yelled to me, grinning back. "It looks like you have better control now than I have with mine! How about we compete to see who has the cooler looking Bankai!"

Even though he was sitting up on top of that wall, I heard Toshiro groan in frustration as I just stared at Ichigo. "Unfortunately at this time, you win. I can't use Bankai anymore." I turned around and walked away from him in the direction of Toshiro, Tatsuya growling in displeasure at my words.

_Try Bankai,_ I heard him growl to me. _I can't stand sounding weak._

I shook my head, hoping he got the message as I heard running behind me. I was forcefully turned around by a remorseful looking Ichigo, his brown eyes showing that he regretted what he said. "Listen, I didn't mean to—"

"Stop, I'm not angry about that at all," I told him. "I just can't use my Bankai right now."

That was the only answer he could get out of me, instead saying that tomorrow night we would celebrate and have a party in my honor for getting Tatsuya under control. Tatsuya huffed, displeased with Ichigo's manners, but was quite intrigued by having a party thrown for us. Once we got back to my quarters, Ichigo said that he had some unfinished business to attend to elsewhere, but he would for sure be ready to party with us tomorrow night. I rolled my eyes but shut the door after him, walking into the room and standing beside the window to watch the night sky before dawn arrived. I watched the stars and saw one flash across the sky as it fell.

"Hey, look, a shooting star," Toshiro pointed out as he walked up behind me, wrapping his arms around me and placing his chin on top of my head. "Time to make a wish."

I immediately closed my eyes, wishing hard upon the falling star. I knew that it was childish to do so, but I always had hope that something would change in my life. I placed my hands over his, leaning my head back as I relaxed against him. "What did you wish for?" I asked him.

"I can't tell you or it won't come true," he told me and I could almost hear the smile in his voice.

"I'll make you a deal," I said. "If you tell me what you wished for, I'll tell you my wish."

"I'll accept your deal," he told me, kissing the top of my head. "I wished for you to be with me forever."

"I knew you'd wish for something like that," I laughed, gazing back up at the night sky.

"Now tell me what you wished for."

"I know for a fact that we'll be together forever, so instead I wished to be able to use my Bankai again."

We stayed silent for a while before I felt him turn me around to face him. I looked down, not wanting him to see my eyes when he curled a finger under my chin and made me look up. His eyes softened as he saw that I was upset and he kissed my forehead softly.

"What were you so insistent upon keeping a secret from Ichigo about your Bankai?" he asked me, his lips still brushing my skin as he spoke.

"I just… I don't know… I've just got this bad feeling deep in the pit of my stomach when I think about using my Bankai. I can't seem to explain it away to myself, so it just sits there and festers in the back of my mind. The only thing I do know is that I just cannot use my Bankai until I figure out where this feeling is stemming from."

"If you had to guess, why do you think you're worrying about this?" he asked, keeping one arm around me and the other trailing up my side until it reached my shoulder where he could play with my hair again.

"Maybe it's because I haven't use it in so long that it would end up being very unstable. I don't really know. I just have this fear that it will end badly if I use it."

I was about to ask him something when he cut me off by kissing me quickly, then pulled away and said, "Marry me."

"What? Are you serious?" I asked him, bewildered.

"I've been serious since the beginning and you just looked like you need something to take your mind off of this Bankai issue. So please, will you marry me?"

"But it's so sudden!" I said, reeling in shock.

"Does that mean you will?" he asked quietly and I knew that he was secretly waiting for a big rejection again.

"Of course I will, but that doesn't excuse the fact that it's still so sudden!" I told him, watching as his eyes lit up in elation.

"You'll actually marry me?" Toshiro asked, trying to hold back his smile until I responded to him.

"Yes, Toshiro Hitsugaya, I will marry you!"

He whooped happily, picking me up and swinging me around. I hadn't seen him this happy since we got the matching tattoos that promised ourselves to each other. He kissed me again once he had me back on my feet, only this kiss was much more passionate. Then he had to pull away so he could ask me yet another question that startled me.

"How about we marry right after the party tomorrow?"

"Absolutely not! It's way too soon to get prepared for something like this!"

"The day after that?"

"No!"

"In a week then?" he asked and I could see that he was putting his foot down with this one. "That's the latest I will allow for it to go."

"Fine, one week," I agreed, feeling deeply vexed with him and his impatience with this. He grinned happily and led me inside the pillow fort, where he curled up with me and slept without either of us having a single nightmare. The only thing I dreamed about was me taking over Tatsuya's body and flying through a stormy sky, dodging lightning bolts and feeling the thunder shake my scales. When I woke up, it was an hour before sunset and I had the crazy idea to test my light tolerance.

Crawling my way out from Toshiro's arms, I slipped free of the pillow fort and snuck out onto the balcony. If I leaned outwards over the railing just a bit, I could reach my arm out and stick it into the sunlight. I tested it with just a finger, slowly moving it outwards until, to my utter surprise, I didn't feel any sort of burning to my skin. Too excited to bother with baby steps any longer, I jumped over the railing and out into the courtyard, several people from my Squad giving me curious looks as I whooped in ecstasy. I laid down in a patch of grass in the very middle of the courtyard, just happening to look up to see Toshiro hop over the railing as well and run as fast as he could to me.

"What are you doing?" he hissed angrily.

"Enjoying the sun!" I exclaimed, the excitement so evident in my voice that he stopped to realize that I wasn't burning at all.

"I just… don't understand how you're able to do this all of a sudden," he said and I wondered the same thing for a few seconds before sprawling out in the warm grass.

"I haven't been in the sun for so long! It feels good! Lay down with me!"

"I think we shouldn't push this," he said, grabbing me under the arms and pulling me up to stand. I laughed and bolted away from him, my captain's haori flapping in the wind as I flash stepped to the roof and into the middle of the Seireitei. I could hear Toshiro catching up to me and I laughed again, reaching the same cherry blossom tree that was the largest in the Soul Society and about to bound away when I was grabbed from behind. I shrieked and tried to get away, but he dragged me over to the tree with a laugh of his own. He turned me around to face him and pushed my back against the tree trunk, the beginnings of a smile forming on his face.

"I'm pretty sure I just caught you," he told me, leaning his head down towards mine. "Do I get a prize?"

I tilted my head up to his, just inches away when I grinned and said, "You get nothing. Anyway, I have a brilliant idea. Why don't we get married here at sunset?"

"You just want another excuse to be out in the sun," he groaned and I kissed him quickly.

"I do like the idea of having it here," I told him. "I feel like this poor tree doesn't have many visitors and a happy occasion being held here would do it some good."

"Fine, we'll have it here," he agreed. "Now, let's go back to Squad 10 Headquarters. They're throwing the party in my office."

We were outside his office just as the moon began to rise up from the horizon, opening the door to reveal four smiling faces beaming at us, one of which was just smirking instead. "Congratulations!" the three girls yelled to me excitedly, throwing what looked to be rice into the air. Toshiro yelled at them for making a mess, getting up in Rangiku's face as the two of them argued. I chuckled at their antics as Ichigo approached me, looking serious all of a sudden as he stood beside me.

"Congrats," he said simply, smacking me on the back and nearly knocking me over. I glared up at him, watching as he gave me yet another smirk before attempting to muss my hair.

"Touch my hair and I claw off your hand," I threatened, hearing him chuckle as we watched Rukia and Momo try to separate the Captain and his Lieutenant. Toshiro was finally pulled away by Momo and turned to give me a small smile before walking over to me. Ichigo went to stand over by Rukia, who elbowed him in the ribs, as Toshiro called for attention.

"I have an announcement to make!" he told them, wrapping an arm around my waist and pulling me to his side. "Imayru has agreed to become my wife for real."

"FINALLY!" Rangiku yelled, Toshiro barely getting all the words out before she voiced her approval. "I have been waiting _forever_ for this to happen!"

"Oh, I'm so happy that I think I'm going to cry!" Momo exclaimed, her eyes shining with unshed tears as Rangiku hugged her tightly. They both clutched at each other as the tears began to fall, wailing in delight and making Toshiro and Ichigo extremely uncomfortable.

"Who knew there would be this much waterworks for a proposal," Ichigo muttered to Rukia, catching a glare from me and looking away innocently.

"You're not from here, so you wouldn't understand," Rukia explained, also giving him a glare. "This is something that has been long awaited by almost everyone in the Seireitei since those two came here to train to be Soul Reapers. It was even worse when they both became Captains of the 13 Court Guard Squads."

"Ok, so it's a big deal. I'm happy for them. Many people in the Human World would go about their daily lives without caring about such things like love."

"That's good then," I called to him, watching him look up at me in surprise. "I've never put much stock in the things that most humans value, like money and popularity."

I turned to kiss Toshiro, who didn't like how quickly it ended but didn't say a word as we all celebrated throughout the night. Ichigo and Rukia went to the Human World to collect a cake, something that Momo, Rangiku, and Toshiro hadn't had before. Rukia said that the humans did this on special occasions and that this definitely qualified as one. We laughed at Rangiku's antics after she broke out the sake and argued with Toshiro over trivial things. I sat beside him the whole night, watching everyone and feeling happy to be together with such a group that obviously cared a lot about us. Finally, things began to wind down as everyone decided to call it a night for now.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The rest of the week went by faster than I wanted it to. For three days, I had to go through a purification ritual that most female souls would complete before a marriage. Most souls didn't do this anymore but I liked the old ways. Wearing just a simple white robe, Rangiku and Momo led me out to the closest waterfall that we could find. We approached it and saw it fall down into a pool that sparkled brightly, Rangiku and Momo giving me a quick hug before telling me that they'd be back at the end of the third day. I waved goodbye before climbing down to the edge of the pool, seeing a set of rocks that were flattened just in front of the spray of the water. I sat down on the rocks, my legs dangling into the cold water and feeling the waterfall beat down on my back. Then I cleared my mind of all thoughts and closed my eyes, relaxing and listening to all the sounds. I went into a hypnotic trance, feeling Tatsuya purr within my mind as he settled into the trance as well. My spiritual pressure gradually rose as I sat there within the waterfall, not moving an inch for the entirety of the three days.

It felt like Rangiku and Momo had only left for a day when I heard them calling for me. I opened my eyes and smiled up at them, jumping into the pool and swimming over to the other side. I shivered when I got out of the water, running over to them as they gathered a fluffy dry robe around me and led me back to the Seireitei.

"H-h-h-how's T-T-T-Toshiro?" I asked as my teeth chattered violently. I hugged the robe to me as tight as I could, hoping the warmth would seep into my bones soon.

"Ichigo and Renji took him to the Human World for what Ichigo called a 'bachelor party,' whatever that is," Rangiku said, rolling her eyes. "They figured that it would keep him away from you before the marriage ceremony. It's bad luck for the soon-to-be husband to see the soon-to-be wife beforehand."

"H-how's he t-taking it?" I asked, the chattering slowly getting better.

"Rukia keeps checking in with him and he's not happy," Momo laughed. "He keeps asking her to take him with her and now has to sneak off if she wants to leave. I guess all he wants to do is see you."

"It makes you wonder what kind of sick torture they're putting the poor guy through…" Rangiku said thoughtfully, laughing after she caught sight of my expression. "Don't worry, Imayru. They're just doing things that drive him crazy because he finds them to be childish and beneath him."

I shook my head but walked with them back to Squad 5, where they immediately fell asleep and I stood at the window. Another shooting star could be seen and this time I wished to be with Toshiro, so I leapt out of the window and down onto the courtyard. I was extremely curious to see what this "bachelor party" entailed, so I created a gate and jumped through into the Land of the Living. I searched for his spiritual pressure, knowing that he must be in a gigai to be able to roam around the Human World and do whatever it is that guys do before marriages. Since he was definitely in a gigai, I could barely detect his spiritual pressure but I knew it well enough that it didn't take long before I found it. I was up and running in the direction that Ichigo had once told me he lived in, passing by the river and bridge until I reached a quaint neighborhood. I felt all three of their spiritual pressures in a house that had a sign mentioning a doctor's office and jumped up onto the roof of the house across from that one. I looked into the window to see Toshiro sitting on a bed while Renji and Ichigo were sitting in front of a television set with controllers of some sort in their hands. I got too curious and flew over to the window to get a better view. Oh, so that's the thing the humans call video games, I thought to myself with a laugh. It wasn't until a strange stuffed lion saw me peeking in the window were any alarms raised. Right before they all turned around, I had jumped through the wall like a ghost and grabbed the lion by one arm as it flailed, screeching nasty things at me.

"What is this thing?" I asked curiously.

"That's a mod soul I stuffed into a lion stuffed animal I found on the street and his name is Kon," Ichigo grumbled as both he and Renji turned back to the game. "Now, please set him down because I'm tired of his complaining."

"Please tell me you came here to save me from this," Toshiro told me, his eyes practically begging me to take him back to the Soul Society.

"She shouldn't even be here in the first place!" Renji protested fiercely, turning around to glare at me. "Women aren't allowed at these and _especially_ not the soon-to-be bride!"

"Unfortunately for you, I'm just here to see what's so great about a bachelor party," I said, looking around the room with curiosity. "Rangiku and Momo were talking about it a bit and it piqued my interest."

"Was my sweet Rukia there?" I heard a voice say and looked down to see Kon the little lion looking up at me with bright hopeful eyes.

"Sorry, pal, but I haven't seen her since the party, so it's been a few days," I told him softly, his eyes darkening from disappointment. Toshiro grabbed my haori and pulled me down to sit beside him on the bed as Kon muttered something about missing Rukia and being mistreated by Ichigo. Ichigo tossed a shoe at him and smacked him into the closet as they continued on with their game. Toshiro huffed and began to play with my hair, so I decided to mess with him. "Hey, hand me a controller!"

All three of them turned to me and openly gaped at me, Ichigo pausing it quickly without looking and Toshiro freezing instantly. "You… want to play?" Ichigo asked, shocked at my request.

"Yes, I do! It can't be that hard, I am a Captain after all."

"Renji, hand her one. We'll see how she handles it first."

Renji tossed me one, a strange expression on his face as he did so, and I turned on the controller to sign myself in. They were playing a racing game and I picked the littlest car possible that had them both laughing, so I knew that I had them beat right from the beginning. Toshiro caught on to what I was about to do and stifled his smile , rubbing my back slowly as the lights counted down on the game and the green light flashed. I let both of them think that I was just getting used to the controls and that's why I was at the back of the pack when in reality I already had the hang of things. It wasn't until the very last leg of the last lap that I picked up speed, launching my car past them so fast that they didn't know what happened. I threw my hands into the air and screamed happily, laughing as they gawked at me again.

Renji stood up quickly, pointing down at me and nearly yanking his controller from the game system, and yelled, "Rematch! I don't know how, but you cheated somehow!"

"I don't believe in cheating," I said, looking down at him with a devious smile. "So the only explanation is that you just suck at video games."

Renji looked furious as Ichigo laughed hysterically, all of us watching as Renji's face turned the color of his hair in his rage as he took a step towards me. Toshiro glared up at him, making him stay still as I grinned up at him again. "Watch it, girl. I'll stomp you out in another game someday."

"We'll see about that," I said, starting another game. Once again, I beat them both just as easily, finally noticing that dawn was soon approaching. Toshiro tried to leave with me, but Renji and Ichigo grabbed him and held onto him until I left, hearing him call after me until I reached the roof and created a gateway. Jumping through, I made it to the Soul Society and quickly into my quarters before anyone woke back up. I crawled into the blanket fort and immediately fell into a deep sleep.

The moment the sun set, I awoke to feel an arm around me and a familiar warmth, turning slightly to see Toshiro behind me as he pressed a finger to his lips. He pressed his mouth against my ear slightly and whispered, "I escaped not long after you came here and have been with you ever since. Now they're all trying to find me."

I heard the door to my office open and a voice called out, "Imayru? Are you awake?"

Not having to pretend to have just woke up, I sleepily called back, "Yeah, why?"

"Is Toshiro with you in there?" I heard Rangiku yell to me.

I looked over at him for his answer and he shook his head. "No, I'm alone and have been all night."

I heard her walk back out and Toshiro sighed, smelling my hair and pulling me closer to his body. I heard him fall sleep and knew he must have been exhausted from all the festivities. I flipped over onto my other side and watched him sleep, noticing how young he still looked but still seemed old enough to be a man, even in sleep. I softly cupped his face with the palm of my hand so I wouldn't wake him and stroked my thumb over his cheekbone, careful to avoid scratching him with my claws on accident.

"Imayru…" I heard him breathe my name in his sleep.

When he woke up later, he snuck back to his office with the excuse that he was sent away to check on something. The last three days wouldn't pass by fast enough for us. He would always find some excuse to sneak into my quarters and sleep with me in my blanket cave, then just before night we would part and go our separate ways to get ready for the ceremony.

Since there wasn't a typical dress code for this sort of thing, Rukia got me a simple white sundress that one of Ichigo's friends, someone by the name of Uryu Ishida, put together for me on the condition that he could come to see it at the ceremony. I later told Ichigo that he could collect all his friends and bring them here if they wanted to come, especially Uryu. Ichigo rolled his eyes but said he would get them the day before it started and I skipped off.

The night before the ceremony, I finally was able to meet the ones that Ichigo and Rukia call friends as he led them through the gate here. I think I managed to surprise them a great deal by bounding up to them so fast. I don't think that they were expecting a Captain like me right then, one who was energetic and happy. I bowed in front of them quickly as their shock wore off, giving them a smile of glee.

"Hello, I'm Captain Imayru Hinamori of Squad 5!" I told them happily, watching as the orange haired girl bounced excitedly on the balls of her feet. "I've heard a lot about you! I never got to see any of you fight when you laid siege upon the Seireitei and felt a bit put out by it."

"This is the girl that's marrying Toshiro," Ichigo explained, looking bored.

I shot him a glare as the orange haired girl ran up to me and gave me a hug. "It's so nice to meet you! My name is Orihime, the really tall quiet one is Chad, and the one with the glasses is Uryu! Thank you so much for letting us come to this wedding! I haven't been to anything this special and happy in a very long time!"

"I was going to do the introductions for you, Orihime!" Ichigo said, looking exasperated with her jolly antics. I had to say that I loved how happy she was about anything, feeling that it was a good sort of change to what I was used to with everyone else.

Uryu held up a folded dress in his hands and offered it to me. "Rukia said that you were around her size, just a bit bigger in the chest area. I think I've got everything sized perfectly once again."

I was in front of him faster than he could blink, unfolding it to finally get a good look at something I had been curious about for a long time. It was a strapless white dress with a ribbon wrapped around the waist to tie in the back that could be used perfectly to keep my Zanpakuto in place. The hem at the bottom of the dress was made from a fancy looking lace and the pattern on the skirt was hand stitched flames that were an intricate design. I gasped with euphoria, remembering that I wore a dress just like this under my captain's haori back when Tatsuya was a light dragon, although this dress was much more beautiful than the one I had back in the past.

"You made this?" I asked in awe, my eyes stinging from wanting to cry tears of happiness.

"Of course, I did!" Uryu exclaimed, looking very proud of himself as his glasses flashed in the lantern's light when he pushed them up higher on his nose. "I'm one of the very best in my school at what I do. The only thing is that I can't take credit for the design of the dress because Rukia was the one who told me all the details for it."

I looked over to her and asked, "How did you…?"

"How did I know that this was your old captain's uniform that you always insisted on wearing?" she asked, grinning from ear to ear. "Believe it or not, I did pay attention to you. You were one of the few people that I looked up to. You never once treated me differently for being one of the Kuchiki clan."

"One's birth matters not to me," I told her, smiling back happily. "What I think matters is what someone does with the gift of life that they received."

She ran at me before she fully thought it through, giving me a hug that was so tight I couldn't breathe. I hugged her back as tight as I could and then she pulled away with a horrified expression. "Captain Hinamori, I'm so sorry for the disrespect."

"Friends have no need for formalities with me, Rukia, and I consider you to be a friend. Just call me Imayru. And thank you so much for giving Uryu the design for the dress. I really appreciate it more than you know."

I told them all to enjoy staying in the Soul Society and ran back to my quarters to try on the dress before tomorrow night. It didn't take long to get there because of how fast I ran and I was panting heavily once inside my quarters. Toshiro was in his office so I knew that he wouldn't be there to see the dress before it was time. I undressed quickly and put the dress on, loving the feel of it on my skin. I looked in the mirror to see an almost flash back, seeing a girl I once knew that was Captain only grown up into a woman that looked fierce and independent. I hadn't seen that look in my eyes before, one that said I had seen too much but had survived to tell the tale. I looked away from me and down at my dress, noticing the familiarity of it and some new changes that I liked. For one, the back of the dress dipped down a little lower than before to show off the tattoo on my back. I had thin straps over my shoulders but this one was strapless and the ribbon was a pleasant addition. I knew that this dress was perfect and that I would probably end up wearing it all the time after things went back to normal for me. I changed back into the clothing I was wearing earlier and hid the white dress in the closet so that Toshiro wouldn't see it before the ceremony started.

It was part of the plan to have a big dinner the night before the ceremony, but Rangiku and Momo ended up cancelling it for the sake of keeping Toshiro away from me before the marriage. They instead opted to go around the Seireitei, reminding the people that were attending when and where to show up and bullying everyone else into going. I was deeply surprised at their tenacity, but knew that they had been waiting a very long time for this and wanted it to be absolutely perfect more than I did. I just shook my head and let them go about doing what they thought would be helpful.

It was an hour before dawn when Toshiro snuck inside my quarters from the window, smiling tiredly at me as he crawled under the pillow fort with me. We lay on our sides, just staring into each other's eyes as we relaxed into the other's arms. I just loved his eyes, especially since those turquoise orbs always sparkled and shone for me whenever I was around him. He slid his fingers between mine and placed his hand on my cheek, stroking my cheekbone with his thumb.

"Are you excited?" he asked me, his voice sounding hopeful as his eyes shone.

"Of course I am," I told him. "I'll finally be with you forever and no one will be able to change it."

"You're not thinking about backing out, are you?" he asked, whispering hopelessly as his eyes went glassy as if he were somewhere else besides with me.

"Shiro, I meant what I said when I agreed to marry you," I said, letting go of his hand to grab his face gently with both hands, forcing him out of his thoughts and back to me. "You're thinking about that day I snapped at you."

"How could I not? You said you didn't want to ever discuss being married to me again."

"But I'm here now," I said, giving him an apologetic look, "and I'm not going anywhere unless you want me to. I don't want to lose you."

"So you don't have any doubts about marrying me later tonight?"

"I have no inhibitions about marrying you. Believe it or not, I'm happy to be doing this, even if I am slightly nervous. It's a big change."

"I'm a little nervous, too," he admitted sheepishly. "It's definitely a big step. I was just afraid you'd leave right before the ceremony started."

"I swear that I wouldn't do that to you," I told him, letting him see how determined I was.

"Good," he sighed with relief. "I love you, Imayru."

"And I love you, Shiro," I replied back, surprising both him and myself as the words seemed to just tumble out of my mouth to ring true.

I heard him make a strange noise before grabbing me and holding me tightly, his body shaking with joy with what I had just said to him. I fell asleep in his arms, feeling tears fall down and soak the pillow beneath our heads. I felt uneasy and overly excited as I was unconscious, making a rough night to sleep for me and waking up a few hours before sunset was difficult. However difficult it was for me, it was doubly so for Toshiro. I had to shake him a bit just to get one eye to open to look at me, then he closed it again in an attempt to go back to sleep.

"Oh, no, you don't!" I told him, kissing his cheeks and watching as he tried to hide a smile. "Today's the big day and you've got to leave or they'll be suspicious."

"Can I see you right before the ceremony?" he asked sleepily. "I just want to see how beautiful you look beforehand."

"No, you may not," I laughed. "You can see me at the cherry blossom tree when the ceremony starts just like everyone else."

"But the girls get to see you before I do!" he said, kissing my neck in an attempt to con me into it.

"No, Shiro!" I laughed again, holding him by the shoulders and putting some distance between us. "They're just helping me get ready for the ceremony. You know they have to do all the girly stuff that makes them happy. You wouldn't want to be anywhere near me during that time. Now, get out of here before they have to track you down!"

"Ugh, fine," he grumbled, kissing me on the lips quickly before crawling out of the blanket cave. Then, almost as if it were an afterthought, he peeked down into the opening and saw his eyes shine like the pool with the waterfall I used for the purification process. "I love you. See you at sunset."

With that, he was gone, jumping out the window disappearing from my sight. I smiled and crawled my way out of the blankets just as the door to my office was slammed open and squealing girls ran inside. The door to my room was slammed open by three teary eyed women who ran at me with arms outstretched and practically tackling me against a wall as they hugged me. I was tear soaked within seconds before they finally pulled away, wiping their eyes and smiling brightly at me while laughing at the expression I presently had.

"I'm just so happy that you two are finally…" Rangiku started to say before bursting into tears again, grabbing Momo to sob into her shoulder.

"You'd think from looking at the three of you that someone important just died before your very eyes!" I exclaimed, still surprised with them.

"We're just very ecstatic that you're finally getting married!" Momo said, tears still falling down her cheeks as she gave me a smile.

"We've all been waiting a very long time for this," Rukia told me, her crying finally stopping as she wiped her eyes once more.

"You guys are terrible…" I said, smiling back at them, getting them to all calm down enough so that they didn't flood my room.

Almost like a whirlwind of hair and dresses, they got my dress out of the closet and practically threw it at me. They helped me out of the clothes I had on and into the dress, cooing gleefully at the sight of me in it and tears falling again. They had me sit down in front of the mirror to do my hair, grumbling when I told them that I wouldn't let them put makeup on me and then grinning when they got me to compromise to just a little bit of it. When it was all said and done, I had half of my hair braiding back into a tiny ponytail, two ivory horns braided into it like the old days. I had a little black makeup around my eyelids and a touch of red on my lips before they all started bawling once more about how beautiful I looked. I patted their backs comfortingly, not used to all the waterworks. Finally, there was a noise on the horizon that sounded like a bell being struck and the girls wiped their eyes quickly before adjusting the wrinkles from their clothes. Much to their chagrin, I grabbed my captain's haori to put it over the dress.

"You're not actually going to wear that, are you?" Rangiku asked, crossing her arms stubbornly.

"Why, yes, I am," I told her, laughing at her expression. "I am Captain of Squad 5 and I will be wearing it whether you all like it or not."

The grumbling started up again as we left, walking to the cherry blossom tree with the others following behind me. I could hear plenty of people talking as we approached and I felt my heart begin to beat faster against my ribcage. Everyone that we knew had showed up for this occasion, even Kenpachi and Yachiru, who both looked a mix of happy and upset to be there at all. I took a deep breath, trying to steady my nerves, and walked out into view as everyone turned around to look at me. I was even more nervous after that, definitely not used to being in the spotlight like this, but just walked down the little aisle they left for me and to the cherry blossom tree where Toshiro was waiting for me with Byakuya, who was the only one to know the words for a ceremony like this since the Kuchiki clan was known to keep records for almost everything. I saw Toshiro's turquoise eyes shine as he smiled at me and I could see him shaking ever so slightly while he waited for me to walk to him. When I was finally standing beside him, I turned to look at him as he grabbed my hands gently.

He stroked the skin on my hands as Byakuya started speaking, but I didn't truly hear the words as I looked into Toshiro's eyes. I only spoke up at the places I needed to and before long, the ceremony was almost over. Byakuya pulled out a red ribbon with a runic inscription painted on it in black and tied our hands together tightly, loudly uttering a strange language that made the runes on the ribbon glow gold before the ribbon disintegrated into thin air, leaving the golden runes upon our skin that seared a path all the way to my soul and I could tell from the look in his eyes that Toshiro felt it, too.

"You are now both irrevocably bound to the other's soul, even if death parts you from the other. Now, seal the bond and look forth upon the future you will have together for the rest of your lives."

I looked back up at Toshiro as his head came down to mine and he kissed me. I felt as if I had been hit with a bolt of lightning as half of my soul was ripped apart to mix with half of his, forming a link in between the other halves of our souls that we had left. It felt like a tether keeping me bound to him so that I would never be lost or lonely ever again. To my surprise, I could now feel emotions pour off of him in waves, mostly love and surprise of his own as he pulled away from me, looking at me with his eyes almost glowing. It was then that I heard the crowd behind us cheering and clapping, the three girls, Ichigo's friend Orihime, and surprisingly Kenpachi all cheering loudest of them all. Toshiro led me down to the three sobbing girls who all hugged me tightly again, Rangiku separating from them again to grab Toshiro into a big hug, who immediately squirmed in his attempt to get free.

"I'm so happy that you had enough sense to listen to me!" Rangiku wailed.

"Thanks for the vote of confidence in me!" I heard him say, awkwardly patting her on the back as he shrugged his shoulders at me.

"And I'm so happy that she had enough common sense to agree to marry you because any woman would be happy to have you as their husband!" she wailed again.

"Calm down, Rangiku!" I told her, rolling my eyes a bit. "You're getting a little out of control!"

Momo and Rukia led her away to get herself calmed down while others lined up to congratulate us, giving me hugs and just shaking Toshiro's hand in fear that he'd react the same way with them like he did with his Lieutenant. A few of Captain Unohana's subordinates put out tables for everyone because the girls set up a dinner for after the ceremony, one that I didn't know about until right then. The rest of the night went by in a haze of laughter and cheer as I sat on Toshiro's lap, feeling through the bond that he was content with being close to me. Rangiku got drunk with Renji and another Lieutenant by the name of Izuru and sang ballads to us all, regardless of all the boos and protests against it. People started to filter out into the night the closer dawn came; even Toshiro called it a night as he picked me up in his arms and carried me off to Squad 10 Headquarters because it was closer. Renji and Rangiku were shouting catcalls at us the entire time until we were out of their sight.

"Tonight was a good night," I heard Toshiro say, looking up into his eyes as I wrapped my arms around his neck. He gave me a smile and leaned down to kiss me quickly before looking back up to see where he was walking.

"The gold runes on our hands have disappeared," I told him. "I kind of miss them already."

"They're still there, just imprinted to our souls."

He carried me inside and set me down in the office while he got the pillow fort set up for us. Then he led me inside, pulling me against his body and kissing me passionately. As he deepened the kiss, I wrapped my arms around his neck and he placed his hands on my hips. Little did I know that this would be the last moment of true happiness that I would have for a very long time.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

I woke in the middle of the night to my body protesting from the activities of the day before after the marriage ceremony. I heard a grumbling noise behind me when I stretched out to stop my muscles from aching, the arm around my waist pulling me back against his bare chest. As I woke up completely, a blush spread across my cheeks in embarrassment as my mind wandered back to right before we passed out. I felt his nose brush against my bare shoulder before he kissed the skin there and drifted back into a deeper sleep.

I felt uneasy as I sensed… something. I could feel it outside somewhere, trying to hide itself yet seemingly wanting to be caught at the same time. I could sense that something was deeply wrong, but didn't want to wake my new husband since I could feel the happiness just pouring off of him. I wriggled my way free and crawled out from the pillow fort, putting on my dress and haori quickly before standing at the window. There was a storm brewing in the distance, the lightning flashing on the horizon and the low rumbles of thunder that threatened rain on the Seireitei. The breeze began to pick up some, getting stronger as the clouds rolled in. The uneasy feeling was getting worse and I knew I needed the comfort of my Zanpakuto in case anything bad happened that I might need to defend myself. I jumped out the window and used Shunpo to get to the rooftops and ran off to my Squad's Headquarters. I felt the link attached to my soul stretch the further I got, strangely uncomfortable with being so far away from Toshiro already.

Once I reached my balcony, I ran inside and grabbed my Zanpakuto and chained it in place on my back, about to head back to Toshiro when I saw a shadowy figure shoot across my courtyard and my unease skyrocketed when I sensed their spiritual pressure. I froze immediately when I felt how sickly sweet it was and the blood rushed from my face.

"Aizen…" I whispered, feeling both rage and fear course through my veins.

_Let's go get the bastard,_ I heard Tatsuya growl in my mind.

I nodded and leapt out the window after him, seeing him jump up onto the roofs and run away as fast as he could. I flash stepped to the roof and took off after him as my vision was painted red in my anger. I could see him clearly now as he jumped down into a garden that was now full of dead plants. I pulled Tatsuya from the chain and jumped down, about to cleave him into two when he caught me in midair by the throat. He turned around and slammed me into a dead tree, its bark cracking and falling in pieces to the ground. As I hissed out a breath, I noticed that Aizen looked a lot different from the last time I saw him. His hair was slicked back and his eyes were deadly, the glasses were now gone and he was definitely not wasting time with faking kindness now. I squirmed to try to get out of his reach as his eyes seemed to see straight down into my soul.

"I'm come back to see how my favorite little test subject is doing, only to find that she hasn't flipped out of control," he said, deathly calm like the eye of a hurricane. "No, she's in complete sync with her changed Zanpakuto spirit. Not only that, but she's now happily married to Toshiro Hitsugaya. I guess that makes you Imayru Hitsugaya now."

"It does," I told him, glaring daggers at him like before. "Now what do you want with me this time?"

"Same reason. I want to use you to dominate the Seireitei and take it over."

"You failed the last time," I sneered, my rage getting stronger and Tatsuya growling loudly in my head, wanting to take over and protect me but knowing I could handle it.

"Is that what you think?" he asked quietly, lifting me up further against the trunk of the dead tree so that I couldn't struggle much. He pulled out a syringe filled all the way with that black fluid and I gasped, kicking my feet to try and get free as he tightened his grip on my neck. I gasped in an attempt to get air back into my lungs as he gripped the cap of the syringe with his teeth, pulling it free and spitting it out onto the ground. He settled the syringe near my neck before saying, "It's far from over," then sinking it into my skin and pushing the plunger.

I screamed as the black liquid went into my veins, feeling a deep ache in my bones as I heard Tatsuya roar. Aizen pulled out another syringe and pulled the cap off with his teeth before sinking it into my skin and pushing the plunger down. I fought as Tatsuya tried taking over, a strange noise coming from him as if he was being forced against his will to control me. My whole body began to shake as Aizen pulled out yet another syringe, giving me a scathing look as he pulled off this cap as well.

"I should probably tell you this now before I inject you with this final syringe," he said calmly. "Since you insisted on syncing up with Tatsuya in his changed form, I can no longer kill your mind for doing so would kill Tatsuya as well. Unfortunately, you can stay alive with Tatsuya. However, I need you to use Bankai for me."

"Never!" I screamed, torn between wishing that Toshiro would find me and hoping that he would stay asleep so he wouldn't have to see this.

"I'll get you to use it one way or another," he said as he sank the last syringe into my skin, his eyes looking cold as ice as he pushed down the plunger.

Instantly, I felt Tatsuya roar and push my mind hard as he fought for control. I whimpered pushed back as hard as I could when Aizen set me back down on my feet and I grabbed my head tightly, closing my eyes and shrieking as I felt my sanity breaking with the strain of holding Tatsuya back. With dread filling me, I soon realized that with the last of the serum in my system, it was no longer possible for me to fight back and win. With an insane roar, Tatsuya shoved my mind down and took over completely.

"To… shiro…" I gritted out as my vision darkened for me, knowing full well that Tatsuya was behind that.

"That's a good girl, Imayru," I heard Aizen say just before Tatsuya took my hearing away from me as well, leaving me in a dark cold abyss from which I couldn't fight myself out of.

* * *

I felt a shock pass through me as I woke up suddenly, sitting up quickly and breathing heavily. I was confused about the sudden awakening when I heard a faint scream off in the distance, sending a cold shiver through my body. I went to wake Imayru when I finally noticed that she wasn't lying beside me. I crawled out of the pillow fort as fast as I could, getting dressed as I heard another scream and a familiar howling noise off in the distance as thunder cracked in the sky. Rain could be heard crashing down onto the roof as I heard another howl followed by a scream and I ran over to the window, not being able to see a thing because of how heavily the rain fell, looking like a cascade from a waterfall. It wasn't until I heard a loud crash in the courtyard that I finally ran outside with my Zankpakuto's sheath tied into my green sash that I saw the gate to my Squad's Headquarters was thrown off its hinges by a large Hollow. I stared up at it in shock, trying to figure out how it got into the Seireitei when it ran at me. I unsheathed my Hyorinmaru and slashed through its mask, forcing it to disintegrate as the sounds of more tormented howls went up into the air. An alarm began to blare in the center of the Seireitei, my subordinates running outside from their barracks and standing before me.

"Warning!" we heard a voice scream over the PA system. "The traitor Aizen has been spotted in the Seireitei, opening a portal to let Hollows within our walls! Be advised, the traitor also has the Captain of Squad 5 under a hypnotic spell! Take caution if she is spotted!"

"He's got Imayru?" I heard Rangiku say as she approached me, but I barely paid her any attention. She must have saw the horrified look on my face and knew how bad I must be feeling, so she told the Soul Reapers standing around us to split into groups and take out as many Hollows as they possibly could without getting hurt. She turned back to me once they ran off into the rain where they couldn't be seen anymore and said, "Listen, Toshiro, there's a positive in this. He didn't kill her. She's still alive."

"I can just barely feel her through the bond we have," I whispered to myself. "That means he must have used the final amount of that serum on her. She's under his control now and can't fight back."

An inhuman roar sounded over the Seireitei and resonated through the bond, the sinking feeling in my stomach making me sick when I knew that it was Imayru. I felt her anguish rush through the bond that was so strong it had me vomiting into the grass uncontrollably. Rangiku made a noise of surprise before rubbing my back comfortingly when nothing was left in my stomach anymore and all I did was dry heave. I shook when another wave of nausea passed through me but I stood up and wiped my mouth, breathing heavily as I leaned against Rangiku. She cooed soft words to me until I stood on my own, taking her completely by surprise as I flash stepped away from her.

"Imayru!" I yelled, following her through the bond as it led me straight for the Sokyoku on the hill.

The rain pounded down as I spotted Hollows being fought everywhere, the bodies of a few unlucky Soul Reapers littering the ground. I was tripped by a flailing tentacle of a Hollow that was lying in wait, slashing through its mask handily and taking notice of the bodies that were lying here. Every one of them were drained of their blood, two deep puncture wounds to their jugular veins and looks of horror plastered to their faces. Another wave of undiluted anguish had me dry heaving again, leaning up against a wall as the rain poured down on me and my bangs hanging down in front of my face. Once my stomach had settled down, I flash stepped away and up onto the Sokyoku to see a man waiting for me to arrive.

"Aizen," I growled at him, pointing Hyorinmaru right at his blackened heart, "what have you done to Imayru?"

"I just turned her into my little pet, one who loves to do my dirty work for me," he said, giving me a cold look as he snapped his fingers.

I saw a dark shape dive from the sky and land between the two of us, slamming into the ground hard before standing up. I saw how unnaturally still she stood and how her eyes were crimson again before finally noticing that something had changed. She had shadowy scales on her talons and her wings and tail looked solid now, a hidden fire burning within the scales. She even had scales under her eyes on her cheekbones and two black horns sticking out of her skull, blood dripping down from her hair where the horns broke through skin. She had blood covering her lips and blood trails down onto her chin, stains of red covering her dress in big splotches.

"I see that you got yourself a snack," Aizen said, walking up beside her and tipping her head back with a finger under her chin to make her look at him. "And it bled all over you, my dear. You should really try to make sure that your prey doesn't spray blood."

I saw anger flash across her face, letting me know that she was still there fighting to be free as she yanked her chin away from his grip and went back to staring straight through me. "Aizen, before I kill you for doing this to my wife, I want you to reverse this and fix her."

"Fix her? But why fix something that isn't broken?" he asked, stroking her hair with the backs of his fingers as I saw her eyes flash with anger again before it was suppressed. "She is perfect in every way, except for the rather annoying part where she's too in sync with Tatsuya to kill her mind."

"So are you trying to say that there's still a chance to get her back?"

"A very slim chance, I suppose. However, it will be near impossible now that I've got all of the serum in her."

"You're going to let her go right now or I will kill you!" I yelled, enraged with his attitude.

"I'm afraid not, Hitsugaya," he said, looking over at Imayru. "Alright, my dear, it's time for you to drain him dry and collect his power."

I barely saw her move, her body a blur as she ran at me with her face expressionless. I knew that I wouldn't be able to use my Zanpakuto against her to fight her, so I just watched as she rushed to kill me by drinking from my jugular vein. Right when her face was inches from mine, I saw a familiar flash in her eyes just before she sank her fangs deep into my neck. I closed my eyes with a flinch, waiting to feel my lifeblood spurt out onto her dress when I only felt a tiny trickle drip down my neck. I was surprised since she was so accurate with her other victims, striking at the exact same point and yet she had her sharp teeth in the juncture of my neck and shoulder. I felt her body shaking and knew that she was still there and fighting to get free.

"Imayru, fight it!" I told her, cringing as she dug her claws into my back and drew blood. "I have faith that you can beat this!"

I sent her bits of my power through the bond and felt an immediate tug as she drained me of both blood and powers. I was beginning to feel woozy when I felt her pull away quickly and rush at Aizen, falling to the ground just as their Zanpakuto's clashed and sent sparks across the dirt. He gave her a look of shock as her eyes gained pupils once more, remaining red but proving that she was in control again. I saw a tinge of fear cross his face while she looked furious, the blood covering her making her look scary.

"How… how did you get control back?" he asked, letting his face go blank so he wouldn't give anything away to her.

"You underestimated me!" she growled, her eyes glowing in her wrathful state. "I'm married to Toshiro and I have a strong bond with him, along with being in sync with Tatsuya! You can't keep me down for long and you _definitely_ can't order me to kill him!"

"Then I'll have to kill him myself to ensure control again."

He used Shunpo to get to me, not realizing that Imayru was much faster than him now and before he could stab me in the back she blocked it with her Zanpakuto. A growl erupted from her throat and she meant business as she shoved back at him, forcing him to slide backwards and leaved deep groves in the earth. She lowered herself to the ground faster than I could see and acted like a crouching dragon about to strike its lethal claws, her blade pointed out at him as she bared her fangs at him and stretched her wings out in the air. I could see blood from the wings bursting through her skin as her tail whipped to the side in her anger.

"Bankai!" I heard her growl, feeling her spiritual pressure slam into me and I felt like I could barely breathe, sweat beading on my forehead as the rain washed it away.

I had never seen her Bankai used before and only a few have since before she was abducted by the Menos Grande, but now I got to see her new Bankai firsthand. Her sword glowed with a hidden light before it was quickly absorbed into her silver claws, sharpening them and making them glow. Next thing I knew, dark shadowy flames covered her instantly, getting larger as it formed a huge dragon with crimson eyes that was crouched in imitation of her. Both she and the dragon roared ferociously as Aizen ran at her, swinging his blade down at her only to be caught by Tatsuya, Imayru moving perfectly in sync with the dragon. She grinned deviously at him and the dragon did as well, twin white-hot flames slipping from its nostrils. I felt pride and joy at seeing her Bankai after her hard work, watching as she turned her head to smile at me after sensing my emotions. Aizen yelled angrily at her insulting lack of attention in their fight and tried to push his Zanpakuto further, but only making both girl and dragon growl threateningly as they turned back to him.

"Shatter," I heard Aizen whisper just before feeling a Zanpakuto stab through my back, going through my heart and into the ground. The Aizen that Imayru was fighting shattered into a million pieces as she looked back at me in pure horror, a wail of agony sneaking past her lips only to be drowned out by both a crash of thunder and a growl from Tatsuya. I felt his blade being pulled out of my back and I vomited blood after he placed his foot on my spine for leverage, knowing that now was the perfect time to hit him now that he deactivated his Zanpakuto.

I used Hyorinmaru to quickly slash through the tendons above his heel and he fell to the ground with a cry of pain. I saw Imayru launch herself into the air with her dragon, making Tatsuya grab Aizen and fly him away from me before slamming him into the ground. She stood to her full height, Tatsuya towering over her before he breathed bright white fire onto the evil man that I could feel from where I was lying on my stomach. Aizen screamed in agony before finally his shrieks were cut off once the fire burned through to his vocal cords. Once the flames were stopped by the shutting of Tatsuya's maw, the dragon dissipated with a roar and her Zanpakuto formed once more into her hands. She put it back into the chain on her back and ran to me, her wings and tail still trailing behind her as the rain really began to fall. She grabbed me, flipping me onto my back and sitting on the ground to keep me upright in her arms. I looked up at her as her tears fell onto my face, sobs wracking her body as my vision began to fail.

"Don't you _dare_ die on me!" she screamed, shaking so badly that the pain increased. "You're supposed to stay with me forever!"

"I'm so sorry, Imayru, but it looks like I'm going to have to break that promise," I said weakly, blood coating the inside of my mouth.

"No! You _can't_ die! What am I going to do without you?!"

"You'll move on," I told her, giving her a drawn smile. "You're strong and you'll be just fine."

"I won't be fine!" she wailed, the tears falling even harder as she leaned her head down to lay her forehead against mine. "I don't want you to leave me!"

"I'm sorry… I love you, Imayru…" I told her, watching her become panicked as my vision turned black. One final time, I breathed to her, "I love you…"

* * *

"No!" I wailed, looking down as his eyes turned lifeless and gray, the turquoise I had loved for so long now gone for good. "I love you, Shiro, I love you so much! Don't you leave me!"

On a whim, I sensed a tug at my soul and with a gasp of shock, I felt for a pulse at his throat and found one that was barely there. I stood up quickly with him, sheathing his sword, wrapping my arms around his waist, and flash stepping into the air so I could spread my wings. I knew that this was going to be the most difficult flight I had ever had and I could only glide, sparingly flapping my wings when needed and sped as fast as I could to Squad 4. I had to crash-land in the courtyard and started to scream for help as I got to my feet again to try to drag him to the emergency entrance at the hospital. I saw Hanataro run out to me with a look of complete despair on his face, throwing one of Toshiro's arms over his shoulders as I did the same, allowing my wings to slowly blow away with the rising wind like sand or glass shards.

"What happened to him?" Hanataro asked me panicking just as badly as I was.

"Aizen stabbed him through the heart before I could kill him!" I cried feebly, the tears streaming down my face even worse and I could no longer see.

"Calm down, Lady Imayru!" Hanataro told me as we made it through the emergency entrance. "My Captain is waiting for us in the emergency room and we will do everything within our power to save him!"

"Then let's hurry! I can feel him fading away and I can't lose him!" I howled and ran even faster with Hanataro trying his best to keep up.

I wiped my eyes so that I could finally see where I was going and saw the emergency room that Hanataro spoke of, Unohana standing in the doorway and sending a group of subordinates to us with a stretcher. They pushed me away from him and placed him on the stretcher before running to the emergency room. I ran after them as fast as I could, only to be stopped by Unohana.

"You can't come in, Imayru, you don't want to see this," Unohana told me in a motherly way as the subordinates ripped his kimono off of his chest enough so that they could see the wound more clearly.

"I don't care, I need to be with him!" I screamed, agony ripping through me at the sight of him.

"I can't let you do this, Imayru, you're already in enough pain as it is. This will only hurt you more if we can't save him no matter what we do."

"No, you will save him! You will do everything that you can to save the man I love and I mean it!" I snarled, seeing how taken aback she looked as my eyes must have flashed red and bared my bloody teeth to show that I was serious. She sighed but led me to the room beside his that had a window I could see through before running back into the emergency room. I cried some more as they healed the puncture wounds through his chest and back, even somehow managing to heal the hole straight through his heart. It was around that time that things took a turn for the worst as his heart stopped beating altogether. I sank down to my knees, no longer able to bear watching this and curling up in a ball next to the wall with the window. I cried and never felt so alone in my life as I finally passing out in exhaustion.

When I woke up later, I felt numb as I shut down emotionally, thinking that if I refused to feel anything that the pain would finally go away. I noticed nonchalantly that I was lying in a bed in the room with the window to the emergency room, Captain Unohana sitting in a chair and waiting patiently for me to acknowledge her presence.

I didn't say a word, just stared blankly at the wall with the window until Unohana spoke up. "I think you'll be happy to know that Captain Hitsugaya survived through the night. His heart is healed and we have the puncture wounds sealed tightly. He's sleeping peacefully in another room. Would you like to see him?"

I slowly looked up at her and nodded once before she stood up to lead me away to where my husband was resting. It was only a few rooms down the hall and she opened the door to let me inside, even going so far as to pull up a chair for me beside his bed before leaving me in privacy. I stood at the foot of his bed for the longest time before moving over to sit in the chair, just watching as he slept peacefully and without a care in the world. I heard him sigh my name as he rolled onto his side towards me, his sleep looking a bit troubled now and I almost expected him to wake but he stayed fast asleep. I figured that it would be a good thing to make the inevitable parting that much easier for him by leaving when he was unconscious. I heard him whisper my name one last time before I stood up, brushing his bangs from his face before kissing his temple and moving my lips to his ear.

"I love you, Shiro," I whispered to him. "I just wanted you to know that before I have to leave for the last time."

When I pulled away, I saw that there were tears leaking from his closed eyelids just before I got up, taking off my captain's haori, folding it up nicely on the chair beside him, and walking out of the hospital entirely. I made my way to my quarters to change out of the dress and into my dragon kimono before walking outside to summon a gateway to the Human World. Once there, I took off the kimono to quickly wash away the blood that was still on my body and then got dressed again. I looked up at the sky as dawn's bright glow filled up the sky but refused to warm me on the inside. Instead, I decided to climb a tree and pass out yet again on a tree branch.

* * *

I heard whispering within the room I was staying in and cracked my eyes open, hearing gasps of surprise as they came closer to where I was lying. I blearily realized that it was Rangiku and Momo standing beside me and in front of the chair that was next to my bed. They both looked very worried about me, even going so far as to push me back down when I tried to sit up.

"How are you feeling?" Momo asked me, and she looked as if she hadn't slept in days like Rangiku.

"I was stabbed in the back by Aizen, how do you think I feel," I mumbled, trying and failing to sit up again when Rangiku pushed me back. "Where's Imayru?"

I saw them both turn to look each other in the eyes before Rangiku said, "You've been unconscious and healing for about a week now. What happened that night?"

"I refuse to tell you anything until you answer my question about Imayru!" I yelled, sitting up fast and feeling my wounds pull painfully. "Now tell me where my wife is!"

Tears fell down from their cheeks as they took a couple steps to the side to reveal the chair that they had been working so hard to hide from view. Sitting there was a bloody captain's haori, one with the inscription that meant it belonged to Squad 5. Bewildered, I looked up at the two girls when Momo said, "She went missing about a week ago."

"How?" I asked simply, feeling dread course through my veins as went back to staring at the haori.

"We think that because she never raised her spiritual pressure to alert anyone that she was in distress that she took off and ran away on her own, just like she did after she came back from Hueco Mundo," Rangiku whispered. "Rukia, Renji, Ichigo, and his three friends are checking the Human World to see if they can find her spiritual pressure."

"They won't find her," I told them, making my body obey my commands and standing up. I wobbled a little and forced the girls to steady me for a few seconds. "The only way to find her now is if I go to the Human World and use the bond I have with her to search for her."

"Captain, you can't go right now!" Rangiku told me. "You're too weak to be chasing after her!"

"I don't have a choice! I need to find her and be with her!"

I grabbed my Zanpakuto and ran out of the room, losing my balance for a second and slamming into the wall in the hallway before taking off again. I ran down the myriad of hallways and finally out into the courtyard before summoning a gateway to the Human World, hoping more than I ever had that I would find her.


	11. Chapter 11

**Hello to the dear people who have read my story so far! I would like to thank you all for taking the time out of your day to read it for it means a lot to me! I know I haven't come out to speak to any of you like this before, but I felt the need to do so now. At any rate, I have been doing some soul searching (ha ha!) about what to do with this story, whether or not to end it with this chapter, and have finally decided... to keep it going for a little while longer! It was that or make a sequel! Anyways, there's some unfinished business in the story that I would like to rectify and knew that it would drive me crazy if I didn't! So enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter 11

I woke in a haze of pain like I did every night, the branches no longer comfortable compared to sleeping in a plush pillow fort every day. This tree was located near the river with the bridge because at the time I liked the sound of the water rushing by. The rain was starting back up again like it had every night when I woke up, making me believe that it was the weather mirroring the emotions that I should have been experiencing if I didn't feel so numb. I had been in the Human World consistently for a week now, moving from tree to tree to sleep during the day and then hunting Hollows at night while avoiding the search party that was sent to find me. They could be heard yelling my name all throughout the night as they tried to search for my spiritual pressure, but I was masking myself with a kido spell to make myself and my reiatsu invisible.

I heard a Hollow appear in the city and flash stepped to it, determined to get there before Ichigo was alerted to it. It was hiding in an alley, completely unaware that I was nearby until I hopped down from a roof to it. It somehow dodged me and slashed my back with a whip like tentacle but I barely felt it as I hit the ground, jumping back at it and ripping through its mask with my Zapakuto. I heard running coming near and jumped up to a fire escape, hanging over the fence as Ichigo and Rukia ran into sight.

"I was sure that the Hollow was right here!" I heard Rukia say as Ichigo walked further out to where it had been standing before I killed it. It was when I numbly realized that he was walking towards a small pool of blood that belonged to me.

"The Hollow was here," Ichigo said before looking around the alley. "And someone killed it before we could get here, just like all of the other times."

"Do you think it was…?" Rukia started to ask, running over to Ichigo as she looked around as well.

"Yes, I do think it was her," he told her before yelling into the alleyway while looking upwards. "Imayru, come out! We've been worried about you and we just wanted to know if you're ok! Not only that, but you were badly injured! Why don't you come down here and we can have you healed up before you go again?" I didn't say anything in response, so he yelled something else. "Toshiro is still in the Soul Society! He won't be chasing after you for a while, so please come out and let us take you somewhere to be healed!"

For some reason, I felt the need to yell down to them. "If I do," I said, making the both of them look up in the direction of the fire escape, "will you swear that you'll stop trying to hunt me down when I leave again?"

"We swear!" Rukia yelled up to me. "Now, please come down!"

I hopped over the railing of the balcony and onto the ground, muttering a few words and revealing myself to them before wobbling enough that I started to fall. Rukia and Ichigo rushed forward to catch me and threw my arms around their shoulders to carry me away. I closed my eyes, feeling a few tears leak from my eyelids as I began to feel emotions again before I could shut them back down.

"Imayru, why did you leave the Soul Society like that?" Rukia asked me as I opened my eyes to blankly stare at her, concern written all over her face as they carried me along.

She gasped a little when she saw how dead my eyes looked as I said, "I couldn't stop Aizen from stabbing Toshiro through the heart. He almost died. What kind of Captain am I if I can't protect the ones I love from evil?"

"So you renounced your captaincy for something you couldn't control?" Ichigo grumbled. "That just seems rather idiotic."

For the first time since leaving the Soul Society, I felt a wrath that was stronger than I'd ever felt before pushing to the forefront of my mind and making me thrash in their hold. I screeched in fury as tears of anger streamed down my cheeks at his words and I screamed, "What do you know?! You have _no_ idea what I'm feeling or what I'm going through, so shut your mouth!"

"At least you sound like a normal person now instead of a zombie!" he yelled back. "You killed Aizen, which is a lot more than most people can say! I couldn't even land a hit on him back when we invaded the Seireitei! If anyone deserves the position of Captain of Squad 5, it's you! So _you_ are the one that needs to shut her mouth because you did everything you could and more to save him!"

"He's right, Imayru, even if you don't want to hear it from us now," Rukia said as we rounded a corner and walked towards a little shop that looked dingy. People began to pour out of the shop and I saw Orihime, Chad, Uryu, Renji, and a couple people I hadn't seen in a very long time. "If it helps you feel any better, I know exactly what you're going through and it doesn't feel good at all."

"You found her!" Orihime yelled happily, running over to us. "Is she hurt?"

"She's got a bad cut on her back that needs to be healed," Ichigo told her.

"Then I'm the girl for the job! I can have her all fixed up in no time!"

"Hey, Imayru!" the man in the funny hat yelled to me. "Long time, no see!"

"It's been a while, Kisuke," I said quietly, looking up at him and feeling the numbness slowly washing over me once more. I saw a black cat beside him that continued to stare at me with its golden eyes and realized immediately who it was. "I haven't seen you in a long time either, Yoruichi."

"I'm impressed that you remember me," the cat teased before wandering into the shop with Orihime running after her.

I was dragged inside to a room with a mat laid out on the floor and Ichigo and Rukia set me down on my stomach as Orihime said, "Ok, this shouldn't take long! Ayame! Shun'o! I need your help!"

Two spirits appeared when the hair clips glowed and flew in front of Orihime. One had a long red dress that was bigger than she was while the other was blond with a topknot on his head. The male spirit that must have been Shun'o said, "You asked for us?"

"Yes, I need your power to heal my friend, Imayru!"

"You know the magic words then!"

"Ok, Imayru, hold still!" Orihime told me cheerily. "Soten Kisshun, I reject!"

A warm tingle spread onto the cut on my back as I stared straight ahead at the wall in front of me. Still locked within my own thoughts, I couldn't tell how long it took for Orihime to heal my back, only knowing when she finished because she tapped me on the back of the shoulder and I got up to leave. I saw them stare at me as I slowly made my way back to the door at the front of the shop, pulling my hood up over my head. I heard someone run up behind me and turn me around to face them just to see an angry looking Ichigo.

"You're actually leaving right now?" he gritted out his question, his eyes burning in his rage as I stared up at him blankly. When he didn't get a response, he shook me by the shoulders and yelled, "The Imayru I remember would never just leave without telling someone thank you for doing something so important for her like healing her up, let alone not saying goodbye to anyone!"

"I don't know what you want me to say," I told him flatly as his eyes burned even brighter.

He grabbed me by the scruff of my neck and dragged me over to Kisuke, growling when I never once fought back. "Open the hidden hatch behind you right now," Ichigo told him, his voice low in pitch. "Imayru and I are going to have ourselves a little chat."

"Don't get carried away down there," he warned the orange haired substitute Soul Reaper as he stood to open a wooden door in the floor of the shop. "I still want to be able to use that room after you're done with it."

"No promises," Ichigo told him before jumping down with me in tow.

We seemed to freefall for a great distance and Ichigo threw me across the ground before he landed himself. I laid there for a long time and he finally was fed up with it, yelling for me to get to my feet. I slowly forced my body to obey as I unsteadily got my feet beneath me, happening to look up at the hatch we just went through to see a group of faces looking down at us. Ichigo shouted, catching my attention as he jumped through the air with his Zanpakuto heading straight into my shoulder and slicing through my skin. I didn't make a noise, which seemed to surprise him more than it should.

Ripping his blade free and making me teeter off balance for a few seconds, he just stared at me before saying, "Did your fighting spirit die with Aizen?" Once again, I refused to give him a response. "You're acting like a zombie again. I know for a fact that your Zanpakuto must hate that with a passion, so this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to use my Bankai and you're going to as well. If you don't, your Zanpakuto's spirit, who I'm sure is listening to me right now, is going to take over your body and use it for you. We're just going to spar against each other until one of us wins or until you stop acting like one of the undead."

I didn't say anything for a minute before glancing up at him with a glimmer of anger showing in my eyes. I pulled my Zanpakuto free from the chain on my back, glared a bit at him, and whispered, "Bankai."

* * *

I tumbled out of the portal and hit the ground hard, gasping as I knocked the wind out of me. When I was finally able to breathe normally, I thanked my good fortune as dawn was approaching. I knew that the only time to catch Imayru would be while she was sleeping, that way she was hiding in one place. My thoughts felt sluggish as I got on my feet, sensing through the bond I had with Imayru that something was very wrong with her. Even though I knew that it was foolish of me to continue on while so weak, I was going to get to her and help her in any way that I could.

Her presence through my bond was throwing me off as I hobbled towards the city, not able to pinpoint her exact location and frustrating me beyond belief. I coughed heavily, forcing me to stop for a few seconds as I covered my mouth tightly with my hand and looked down when I was done to see blood. I growled angrily and continued hobbling down the path as my vision darkened around the edges. I knew that a group of people here were searching for Imayru in this world and they were probably being led by an old Captain, so I headed in the direction of where I thought the shop would be, coughing up blood every few blocks or so. I was about halfway when I had to double over and throw up, blood spewing everywhere and before long my stomach was empty as I dry heaved painfully. I knew I had to keep moving and slowly made my way down the block again when the world seemed to tilt as I fell to the sidewalk. I hit my head hard off the concrete and was about to pass out from the head trauma when I saw two figures running to me just before I blacked out completely.

When I came to, I saw an orange haired girl staring down at me with two fairy looking spirits floating around her head before they disappeared into a flash of light that went straight into her hair clips. She yelled to someone in another room as the owner of the shop came into view with Renji and a couple more of Ichigo's friends.

"I was wondering when you'd show up," Kisuke said, sitting down next to the mat I was lying on. "Orihime healed you again since you insisted upon causing yourself more damage by coming here."

"Do you know where Imayru is?" I asked, cringing when I noticed the pounding in my head getting worse.

"Unfortunately, you just missed her. She looked much worse than you when she left rather than you do arriving here."

I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose in frustration. "What happened?"

"Well, she showed up here with Ichigo and Rukia dragging her inside because she had a nasty lash wound to her back from a Hollow. I guess she didn't even bother trying to dodge its attacks, just took it without so much as feeling it hit her," Kisuke started telling me, his hat keeping his eyes in shadows even though they shone brightly. "Orihime healed her quickly and she was going to leave immediately without even saying a word to us when Ichigo stopped her, yelling about how the Imayru he knew would never act that way."

I shook my head, knowing that something bad was about to be said and almost not wanting to hear about it. "Go on," I insisted, moving to sit up only to have my head pound even harder and force me to lie back again with a moan of pain.

"Anyway, he grabbed her, took her down to the secret training room I've got hidden underneath this shop, and attacked her, only to discover after he sank his Zanpakuto into her shoulder that she wasn't in the right state of mind to fight back or to stand up to him. He then told her that they were going to fight using only their Bankai until one of them won or until she snapped out of the funk she was in. She obliged, the only emotion she showed was anger and even then it was a brief sight. Ichigo's Bankai allows him to be extremely fast, but that didn't stop her from completely overpowering him, not once did she block his attacks and later knocking him unconscious with a strike to his skull. After her win, she calmly walked out of the shop without being healed up and I haven't seen her since. I had never had the chance to see her Bankai before the incident, but I think it's much stronger now than I'd heard about before."

"I was afraid of that," I said quietly, covering my eyes by throwing my arm over them. "How's Ichigo holding up?"

Kisuke grinned down at me, shaking his head before looking back to the door. "He was immediately furious once he came to, screaming and shouting about how rude the 'zombie Imayru' is and that he's going to kick her ass for what she did to him. Then he took off after her and we haven't seen him since. I sent Uryu and Chad out to look for him and convince him to come back to wait for her, which is when they happened to find you on the sidewalk."

"For his sake, I hope he doesn't find her," I told Kisuke.

"Why not?" the orange haired girl asked, startling me since I had forgotten that she was even in the room with us.

"I'm afraid of what she might do if she snaps," I told her, uncovering my eyes and looking at her. "Right now, she's just absorbing everything so fast that she won't be able to feel anything. Once that emotional barrier breaks, she will lash out and strike at anyone in her path, regardless of who you are. I've seen this happen once before, not long after we all believed that her Zanpakuto's spirit was dead. Someone challenged her captaincy not long after she got back from Hueco Mundo and that was the last straw that broke the camel's back. She took him down in record time without the use of her Bankai, then went on even further and nearly killed the guy. After that, she rescinded her captaincy and was isolating herself in this world."

"So what do we do to get her to calm down?" Kisuke asked me.

"I need to find her before Ichigo does," I said simply.

"You can't go yet!" Orihime exclaimed, giving me a stern look. "You need to rest!"

"I can rest as soon as I have Imayru back. I can't just let her keep thinking that she's going to stay here again for centuries." I got up regardless of the headache that was protesting every second.

"If you're so determined to find her, I've got a faster way," Kisuke said, tossing me a blood red orb the size of my fist. "That orb in your hand will flash the closer you get to her. Don't ask me how I made it specifically for this occasion though. It's a long story."

"Thank you," I told him, jogging out of the shop entirely and around the corner, out into the night even though I knew she'd still be awake. The orb flashed lazily, slowing down even more when I turned left towards the edge of town, which meant that she was hiding somewhere in the center of the city itself.

I ran faster than I probably should have and watched the orb closely when I saw it begin to flash a little faster. I thanked my luck that I was going to actually make it to her sooner than I thought. It wasn't until I heard a scream echo through the night darkened city. I felt my blood run cold and picked up the pace, hoping that nothing bad happened to her and felt through the bond that she was feeling again. I sighed in relief and ran as fast as I could to the center of the city.

* * *

The tears ran down my face and I heard a wail escape my lips, almost not believing that I was the one making the wretched noises. I had finally fallen down in the middle of a park, my hands and knees scraped and bloody as I bled even more into the ground. I had left Kisuke's shop not long after knocking out Ichigo and also knew that he would be out hunting me down soon but I could care less if he did. My wounds burned but not as much as my mind did now that my emotional ones were ripped open. I had killed people back in the Soul Society, draining them of their blood as they stared at me in horror. Not only that, but I had been tricked by Aizen and he almost killed Toshiro. I didn't deserve to call myself Captain, not even after discovering my Bankai again. I got back up onto my hands and knees and screamed again, closing my eyes tightly as the sobs wracked my body with violent shudders. I heard running feet enter the park, feeling my sanity being pulled to pieces as the emotions rolled through me unchecked. I was an emotional timebomb from the moment I came from the Soul Society and I was unleashing it onto Human World now in waves.

It was when I felt a hand on the back of my uninjured shoulder that I flinched but continued on in self-hatred as my spiritual pressure exploded from my body. I heard the other person grunt but stand strong as I screamed again. They didn't move except to rub the back of my shoulder as comfortingly as possible until the crying and screaming abated just long enough for them to crouch down beside me. I looked over at them and felt a slight shock when I saw it was Toshiro.

"What are you doing here?" I croaked, my throat raw from the yelling and the tears finally drying up.

He reached out and rubbed his thumbs under my eyes to wipe away what was left of the tears. "You tried to hide here again," he said quietly, the pain in his eyes evident and I knew I must have hurt his feelings. "I just don't understand why."

"I killed people. I deserve to be exiled for my crimes, or even put to death," I whispered, not able to look him in the eyes anymore. "And I definitely don't deserve the title of Captain of Squad 5."

"No one blames you for what happened, Imayru," he said as he placed a finger under my chin to lift my face and make me meet his gaze. The hurt was still there but I saw how earnest he was about his words. "They know you weren't yourself when it happened. We want you to come back. I _need_ you to come back."

"I can't… I just can't."

"But why not?"

"Because I let Aizen stab you through the heart!" I yelled, anger rushing through me before I could stop it and I scrambled to my feet, Toshiro standing up with me a few seconds later. "I wasn't able to protect you! I have to be a shitty Captain if I can't even do something as simple as that!"

"Imayru, you killed him not long after that!" Toshiro yelled, snapping me out of the depths of self-loathing that I was drowning in. "No one else can ever say that! No one else could even lay a scratch on him and yet you killed him! If you think that the Soul Society would want you gone after taking down one of the strongest Soul Reapers in the history of souls, then you are wrong!"

"I just can't go back," I whispered. "I can't protect the ones I love."

"You shouldn't have to protect me! I'm the one that should have been able to protect you, but I couldn't whatsoever! Do you know how much that hurt?" When I was about to say something in response, he stopped me and yelled, "You just came here to hide again! You left me again and that hurt far worse than not being able to protect you once since Aizen showed up!"

I didn't know what else to do and I felt awful for what I had done. I didn't realize that I would hurt him by disappearing before he woke up. He never saw me move as I was in front of him faster than he could blink and hugged him tightly. He wrapped his arms around me as tight as he could and I could feel his fingers grasp at the back of my kimono like I was doing. I had my head under his chin and buried my face into his chest as one of his hands snuck up to my hair, pulling at the strands painfully but I didn't care as I felt his tears drip down onto my head.

"I'm so sorry, Shiro," I whispered as I felt his body shudder. "I just… I don't even know why I left in the first place. I guess I really did just run away from everything and hide."

"Hey, Imayru!" I heard someone yell my name, turning my head a bit to see an enraged Ichigo running towards us.

"Beat it, Kurosaki!" Toshiro yelled back at him. "Can't you see we're having a moment together?"

"Yeah, I can see it, I just don't care right now!" Ichigo shouted, sliding to a halt a few feet away from us. Toshiro held me closer and his shuddering stopped as Ichigo said, "I'm here to have a rematch with your wife! She fought dirty!"

"You wouldn't leave me alone so that I could leave," I told him quietly. "By that time, I just wanted it to be over as fast as possible."

"I don't care! Fight me!"

"Are you serious?" Toshiro grumbled as I said, "You lost fair and square. You drew blood on me while all I did was knock you out. We're even and in no need for a rematch so fast. Besides…" I wobbled a bit, thankfully still in Toshiro's arms as the blood loss started to get to me. "I am now able to think clearly. I know I need to be healed or I'll die from all the blood I've lost in the past 24 hours. Unless one of you wishes to become my snack so that I can bite you to get the blood I've lost back, I suggest you let me go, Ichigo. Take me to Kisuke's shop, Toshiro." I slumped into a dead faint, hearing them both gasp in surprise as I did so.

"Wake up, Imayru," I heard Kisuke say as I opened my eyes a bit, watching him stand up and walk over to the door. "Orihime kindly healed you again. I'll go let Toshiro know you're awake and let him bring in food for you."

He left quickly and five minutes later, Toshiro burst through the door with a tray that had two bowls of soup. "You're going to eat this and like it. No complaining," he told me, glaring jokingly before sitting down next to me and handing me the tray, taking one of the bowls for himself.

I looked down at the contents of the bowl to see that it was chicken noodle soup, one of my favorites for actually being a picky eater. I grabbed the spoon and slurped it down in record time, not realizing until the bowl was before me how hungry I was. My stomach was painfully full by the time I was done and I lay back on the mat. I debated on taking a nap but Toshiro was giving me a strange look. I asked him what was wrong and he looked down as if trying to figure out what he wanted to say next.

He looked up at me and I saw something shimmering in his eyes. "Come back to the Seireitei with me," he said. "Come back and be Captain of Squad 5 again."

"I can't," I told him simply. "I'm undeserving of the title."

"Alright, I understand," Toshiro said, pulling out a soul pager and dialing a number on there. "Just let me make one call back to the Soul Society first."

"Why would you need to do that?" I asked, suspicion rushing through me before I could stop it.

"I need to let Rangiku know that I can't come back without you and that she'll be the new Captain now."

He hit the call button and I tackled him to the floor, reaching for the phone as he arched his back to keep it right out of my grasp. "You hit the end call button right now!" I yelled as he grinned mischievously at me.

"Say you'll come back with me and be Captain again then I will!" he yelled back, looking downright devious as he did.

"This is blackmail and I do _not_ appreciate it in the slightest!" I growled, stretching my body as far as I could just to brush my fingers against the phone when he pulled it a few inches away from me. With his other arm, he tightly wrapped his arm around my waist so that I couldn't try to shimmy my way up further and I hissed in fury.

"Say it!" he shouted and his eyes burned into mine furiously. We had a bit of a stare off as we both stubbornly stood by our decisions before I hissed again.

"Fine!" I yelled, baring my fangs at him. "You get what you want! I'll go back with you to the Seireitei!"

His grin returned when he snapped the phone closed, then said, "I didn't actually call Rangiku. I just tricked you is all."

I could hear laughter in the other room from Renji and Ichigo, flushing in anger as I got off of the stubborn man. He started to laugh again as well as he stood up and gave me a hug, keeping me in place as I squirmed to get away. I hissed again when he only held onto me tighter, waiting for me to calm down some before he finally loosened his grip on me.

"I am still extremely angry at you, regardless of you being my husband," I grumbled.

We stayed at Kisuke's shop for one more day before we returned back to the Seireitei. We were greeted by Rangiku and Momo once we had stepped foot in the Soul Society and they threw a welcome back party for me. I was thankful for the friends I had, the ones I valued so much that I even considered them to be as close to family as I could get. Even more so, I was thankful for my husband and the spirit of my Zanpakuto. They had always been there for me and I could never begin to show them how much it meant to me. However, I kept getting the same vibe that something important was going to change for me. I didn't know how and I didn't know when, but what I did know was that it would be brutal, bloody, and the hardest tribulation that I could ever go through, whether or not the outcome would be good or bad. I just knew one thing and that was that I needed to be ready for that day to come.


End file.
